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THE BACKWARD TRAIL 



pm$ of the Indian^ and Tenne^^ee pioneei'? 



BY 



WILL T. HALE 

Author of " l7i an Autumn Lane, and Other Poems 
and Dialect Pieces " 



Jfe- 



NASHVIIvIvE, TENN. 

THE CUMBERIvAND PRESS 
1899 

L. ■ 




4.VU9 



Copyrighted, 1899, by Wii^l, T. Hale. 



PIES RECEIVED, 



S^- ^fTlv£. ^f 



Gil -^ i8i9 




btCONO COPY, 






n- 



PA . 



INTRODUCTION. 



H 



■>^ 



In seeking- to present the strange and romantic, the 
thrilling and marvelous, we need not indulge the imag-ina- 
tion. The history of Tennessee abounds in facts stranger 
than fiction. 

Speaking of the various deeds of the Savior while on 
earth. Saint John avers : " If they should be written every 
one, 1 suppose that even the world could not contain the 
books that should be written." Many volumes could be 
profitably and interestingly filled with heroic acts of our 
ancestors. In presenting- the following, the object has 
been to g"ive precedence to only a few of the salient occur- 
rences, and to try to treat them in such a manner as will 
stimulate the study of our annals by the young. The truth 
has been adhered to throughout so far as the author was 
able to discern it. 

The author acknowledg-es his obligations for valuable 
assistance rendered him by Dr. R. ly. C. White, the eminent 
specialist in Tennessee history. 

(iii) 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

A Glance at Tennessee's Progress, and Reviewing Some 

of Its Ivandmarks 2 

CHAPTER n. 

The Earliest Discovery of Tennessee Soil, and the 

Destruction of Old Fort I^oudoun 13 

CHAPTER III. 

The Wataug-a Association, with an Account of an 

Attempt to Destroy the First Settlements 23 

CHAPTER IV. 

John Sevier, Soldier and Statesman, as well as a Notice 

of the State of Franklin 32 

CHAPTER V. 

The Settling of Middle Tennessee, noting- the Beg-in- 

ning of Indian Atrocities 44 

CHAPTER VI. 

Further Mention of Events in the Cumberland Settle- 
ments, and James Robertson's Achievements 50 

CHAPTER VII. 

An Interesting- Record, Together with a Tragedy on 

Stone's River 67 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Territorial Matters, Including- Some of the Public Acts 

of William Blount 82 

(v) 



vi Contents. 

CHAPTER IX. 
The Nickojack Expedition, Which Resulted in Break- 
ing- the Spirit of the Indians 94 

CHAPTER X. 

Mere Glimpses of Certain Other Characters Fig-uring- 

in the Earlier Settlements 102 

CHAPTER XI. 

Endurance and Heroism of Frontier Women, and Some 

Instances Particularized 120 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Pastimes of the Settlers, and Their Whole-souled 

Hospitality 130 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Early Relig-ious Sentiment, and the Faithful Work of 

the Ministers 136 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The Tribes Claiming- a Rig-ht to I^ands at the First 

Settlement, and Their Present Status 144 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Mound Builders or Stone Grave Race, afid Some 

Archaeological Researches 154 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The Battle of King's Mountain, and Tennessee's Con- 
nection with the Revolution 164 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The Story of Constitution Making, from the Watauga 

Association to 1800 171 



CHAPTER I. 

A GLANCE AT TEXXESSEE'S PROGRESS, AND EEYIEWING 

so:me of its laxdmares. 

Tennessee was admitted into the Union on May 31, 
or June 1, 1796, the third State coming in under 
the Federal constitution, although in IT 94 it had be- 
come a distinct territorial government. The seat of 
government was at Knoxville from 1794 to 1811, ex- 
cejjting for a short period only in 1807, when it was 
at Kingston; from 1812 to 1815 it was at Xashville: 
in 1817 it was again removed to Knoxville, and from 
there in 1819 to Murfreeshoro, where it remained until 
1826; then ISTashville became the capital. The State is 
bounded north by Kentucky and Virginia, southeast 
by North Carolina, south by Georgia, Alabama, ^lissis- 
sippi, and west by Arkansas and Missouri. Its popula- 
tion was 35,691 in 1790, and 1,767,518 about a century 
later. The largest cities ?-^3 Xashville, Knoxville, 
Memj^his and Chattanooga; and the governors of the 
State, not including the territorial governor, William 
Blount, have been: John Sevier, 1796; Archibald 
Roane, 1801; John Sevier, 1803; Willie Blount, 1809; 
Joseph McMinn, 1815; AVilliam Carroll, 1821; Samuel 
(I) 



2 The Backward Traii.. 

Houston, 1827 — resigned April 16, 1829, and was suc- 
ceeded by AVilliam Hall, Speaker of the Senate; Wil- 
liam Carroll, 1829; Newton Cannon, 1835; James K. 
Polk, 1839; James C. Jone-s, 1811; Aaron V. Brown, 
1815; Neill S. Brown, 1847; William Trousdale, 1819; 
William B. Campbell, 1851; Andrew Johnson, 1853; 
Isham G. Harris, 1857; Andrew Johnson, military gov- 
ernor by appointment from 1802 to 1865; William G. 
Brownlow, 1865 — resigned February 25, 1869, and was 
succeeded by D.W. C. Senter, Speaker of the Senate; D. 
W. C. Senter, 1869; John C. Brown, 1871; James D. 
Porter, 1875; Albert S. Marks, 1879; Alvin Hawkins, 
1881; William B. Bate, 1883; Robert L. Taylor, 1887; 
John P. Buchanan, 1891; Peter Turney, 1893; Robert 
L. Taylor, 1897; Benton McMillin, 1899. 

The climate is generally mild and salubrious, ex- 
cepting in the more swampy districts of the western 
portion of the State, and assures a great variety of 
vegetable productions. Several indigenous grasses 
spring spontaneously; black and red haws, woodgrapes, 
wild plums, black, whortle and goose berries, hickor}^- 
nuts, chestnuts, walnuts, pecans and chinquapins, all 
grow^ in abundance; so that it can be readily seen that 
it must have seemed a delightful land for a home by 
Ihose hunters and explorers who occasionally passed 
through some portions before emigration was actually 
turned to the western country. 

Tennessee has made rapid strides within a century, 
and is now one of the most progressive of the Southern 



A Vast Wilderness. 3 

States. When we consider its present development, 
it is almost impossible to believe that before the year 
1750 it was a vast wilderness, uninhabited by any 
white person. Where beautiful towns and cities now 
flourish and elegant rural homes are situated, then 
bulTalos bellowed and fought around the salt licks, 
bears passed through the cane and underbrush, deer 
stalked down to the streams to slake their thirst, pan- 
thers screamed from their coverts, and the wild tur- 
keys called to each other in the solitude. 

Now and then adventurous explorers passed down 
the larger streams, returning to the colonies with won- 
derful tales of the wilderness, and occasionally bands 
of Indians ventured into the fastnesses, to go back to 
their villages after a few weeks laden with game; but 
no vrhite man dared to nmke the Tennessee region his 
home before the middle of the eighteenth century, and 
even the savages laid no serious claim to much of it 
as a part of their domains. 

Taming the wilderness now is an easy and pleasant 
task, vvith railroads and other facilities for traveling, 
not to mention the ease with which the settler can get 
the other requirements for his work of home-making. 
But when the first settlers came to Tennessee, the jour- 
ney was a long and perilous nndertaking, and the first 
years' struggles were often sufficient to depress strong 
hearts. A historian has recently described the found- 
ing of new settlements in graphic language. As a rule, 
he says, the settlers came in groups for mutual protec- 



4 The Backward Trail. 

tion, and perhaps for mutual encouragement. The 
household goods were borne on the backs of horses, 
called pack-horses, and consisted generally of a few 
cooking utensils, a wooden trencher for kneading 
dough, several small packages containing salt and some 
seed corn, a flask or two of medicine, wearing apparel, 
a wife, and sometimes a baby at the breast. Their 
daughters walked beside the mother on the horse and 
the sons were with the fathers a few paces in front. If 
a cow and a few pigs were added to their outfit the 
future founders of the commonwealth regarded their 
lot as peculiarly fortunate. 

Having arrived at the place of destination, they set 
to work to erect a cabin, a primitive affair of logs, with 
a top of clapboards held in place by weights. The fur- 
niture consisted of a bedstead, a washstand, a few 
three-legged stools, a table, a water bucket, a gourd 
dipper, and pegs about the walls for hanging clothes, 
rifles, game and the like. The chief covering for the 
family in cold weather was rarely a blanket, often the 
skins of deer and bear, and occasionally buffalo, tanned 
so as to be soft and supple. The fare consisted of 
game, which was abundant and delicate. Bread was 
made of corn, beaten as fine as possible in an impro- 
vised mortar. It was made into dough on a trencher 
and baked in the ashes and called ash-cake, or baked 
before the fire and called »Tohnny-cake, a corruption 
from Journe^^-cake, from the ease with which it could 
be made. The corn itself could also be made into 



Interesting Landmarks. 5 

mush, and where the cow had prospered, mush and 
milk made the favorite diet, for supper especially. A 
delicious syrup was gotten from the maple. Butter 
was supplied from the fat of hears meat, or the gravy 
of the goose. Coffee was made from parched rye and 
dried beans. Tea was supplied by the sassafras tree. 
The location of the cabin was as near to a spring as 
possible. The garden was laid off not far from the 
cabin. All trees within gunshot of the house, large 
enough to conceal the body of an Indian, were care- 
fully cut down. A shed was built in the yard for the 
horses and pigs, which were allowed to run at large 
during times of peace, to grow fat upon the mast, and 
trained to return at eventide and seek shelter from 
wolves and the depredations of bears. 

A few of the cabins and better class of habitations 
of the earlier days are standing yet — battered urns 
whose dust was scattered long ago. Xear the main 
road leading to Sevierville, and about five miles from 
Knoxville, in a deserted and worn-out field, are the 
ruins of an old log station. During the war between 
John Sevier and his comrades against the Cherokees 
for the protection of the French Broad settlers, the 
place became the refuge of a number of families, and 
it had been a frontier post before Knoxville was set- 
tled. The land around it was bought by Gen. Sevier, 
the great Indian fighter, about 1790. He added to the 
buildings, and even after he was Governor of Tennes- 
see lived there in rustic simplicity. He kept open 



6 The Backward Trail. 

house and entertained his friends and guests, who were 
numerous. Among his visitors often were the Indian 
chiefs, John Watts, Double Head and Bloody Fellow, 
who, as the liistorian observes, came to stretch their 
moccasins before the great wood fire, or eat of Sevier's 
venison, or ask his advice on the important affairs of 
their nation. 

A few miles east of Nashville, not far from the Her- 
mitage, the first dwelling of Andrew Jackson may be 
seen, gra}^ and dilapidated. It is also a log structure, 
of three rooms and a capacious fire-place that looks as 
if it might chamber a quarter of a cord of wood. Rude 
as this building is, it once sheltered many a distin- 
guished person, among them Aaron Burr, the fastid- 
ious New York statesman. The visitor to the land- 
mark, by a very slight effort of the imagination, can 
hear old voices in the gloom, recall evenings when 
Jackson and his wife — ^lovers from marriage until sep- 
aration by death — sat by the door and talked of their 
future plans, the whippoorwill in the woods 

"Threshing the summer dusk 
With his gold flail of song," 

and the insects in the undergrowth making the even- 
ing sweet with a thousand toned delights. 

Another building having an interest because of its 
age if for nothing else may be seen some sixty miles 
east of Nashville — the Overall homestead, in DeKalb 
County. It is situated upon the western bank of a 



KarlY RKCOI.I.ECTIONS. 7 

beautiful stream, not more than two miles from the 
crossing at the Buifalo Ford on the Indian trail which 
led from the Cumberland Mountains to the early set- 
tlements on the Cumberland river, and near the Nash- 
ville and Knoxville turnijike. Its present owner was 
born there about 1830, was a number of times a mem- 
ber of the Legislature, and has many interesting things 
to tell of the homestead and its first possessor. "My 
father purchased the place about the year 1800,'' he 
will tell you. "Of course you see I have remodeled the 
building somewhat, but the portion that was standing 
when he became owner is still intact. The first settler 
here was a man named Looney, who was not held in 
high esteem by the few settlers hereabouts, for he was 
thought to have made his property by unfair means, 
and was in addition supposed to be too much in sym- 
pathy with Indians. My father came from Virginia, 
bringing his stock and negroes with him; and you may 
wonder at it, but I have now the same breed of dun 
cattle that were brought here soon after the territory 
became the State of Tennessee. And," he will con- 
tinue, with a twinkle of humor in his blue eyes, "I 
have lived in three counties, though I was born in this 
house and never moved in my life. The farm was 
first in Smith County; when Cannon w^as made from a 
portion of Smith, I found myself in Cannon. The 
plantation is now in the county of DeKalb. On Smith 
Fork creek, at the Buffalo Ford, there occurred the 
fight with the Indians which is recorded in Carr s Ten- 



8 Thk Backward Trail. 

nessee history. The spot is jiist above the present 
ford, a mile north of my farm, and by looking at the 
place and reflecling that it was then covered with cane 
and heavy undergrowth, a person need not wonder that 
the Indians made a good stand. Gen. Winchester, of 
the Sumner County settlements, while out upon a 
scouting expedition, came upon fresh traces of Indians. 
He and his party pursued them down what is now 
known as Smith Fork creek until reaching the ford. 
He saw there that the Indians had decided to stop and 
give battle. His spies — two of them — were in front. 
When they entered the canebrake a short distance, the 
savages, lying in ambush, fired upon them. The 'spy 
named Hickerson was killed. Gen. Winchester and his 
force hurried up, and the battle lasted some time. But 
the Indians had the advantage in numbers and posi- 
tion, and the former were forced to withdraw. Capt. 
James McCann killed an Indian on this occasion who 
was supposed to be a celebrated chief and warrior 
known as the Moon, as he was hare-lipped, and it was 
claimed that there was but one hare-lipped man in the 
tribe to which the body of Indians belonged. 

"Speaking further of the Indians, many of them 
came through Ca.nnon County when migrating beyond 
the Mississippi river. My father visited their camps, as 
did many of the farmers. He said that he was able, 
after seeing them on the way from their old hunting 
grounds and the graves of their fathers, to form a bet- 
ter idea of the appearance of the Hebrews when leav- 



The " Mountain District." 9 

ing Egypt. Many of them were wealthy, having their 
slaves and fine horses. 

"I have heard my parents speak of their early days 
here. They weie often uneasy over thoughts of Indian 
violence, though no massacre took place. There were 
alarms now and then, when the neighbors would all 
go to one house and remain until the scare was over. 
As late as 1865-66 it was not an uncommon occurrence 
for a few Indians to leave the fastnesses of North Car- 
olina or East Tennessee and pass through this section 
on a wearisome journey to the far West.^' 

Finally: The Goodpasture house still stands on 
Buffalo creek, near Hillham, in Overton County. It is 
a large two-story log structure, with only one door in 
the front and one window in the upper story. It was 
erected in 1800, while the country between Livingston 
(now the county seat of Overton County), and King- 
ston, then a federal fort at the junction of Holston and 
Clinch rivers, was occupied by the Cherokee Indians. 
This section is now known as the "mountain district" 
of the State. It is a romantic country, and the facts 
concerning its early settlement are full of interest. It 
extends northwestwardly, between the Cumberland 
Mountains and the Cumberland and Caney Fork 
rivers, from a line drawn lengthwise through the cen- 
tre of the State to the Kentucky line, embracing the 
present counties of Overton, AVhite, Jackson, Putnam, 
Fentress, Clay and Pickett. All of it was not opened 
for settlement at the same time. By the treaty of Hoi- 



lo The Backward Trail. 

stoii, in 1791, the Indian line began at a point on Cum- 
berland river, from which a southwest line would 
strike the ridge that divides the waters of Cumberland 
from those of Duck river, forty miles above Nashville. 
The line ran two and a half miles east of Livingston, 
dividing the district into two almost equal parts. The 
West was open to settlement, and the East (known as 
the Wilderness) reserved to the Cherokees. By an act 
of the General Assembly in 1798, the line of the In- 
dian reservation was made the eastern boundary of 
Sumner County, which, in 1799, was reduced to its 
constitutional limits, and the new counties of Smith 
and Wilson established out of its former territory. 
Two years later Smith County was reduced, and Jack- 
son County established, extending to the Wilderness. 
By the treaty of Tellico, in 1805, the Indian title to 
the Wilderness was extinguished, and the entire moun- 
tain district opened. In this part of the State are 
Obeds and Eoaring rivers, and on the banks of the lat- 
ter the Long Hunters spent eight or nine months of 
the years 1769-70 while exploring the West. The 
Goodpasture family came from Kingston by the Wal- 
ton road — which was then marked out between that 
place to the present village of Carthage, and completed 
in 1801. "The road," say A. V. and W. H. Goodpast- 
ure in a biographical and historical v/ork, "was about 
a hundred miles in length, and contained four stands 
for the accommodation of travelers. Coming West, 
the first of these was at Kimbrough's, on the eastern 



Thk First Settlers. ii 

foot of the moimtain; the second at Crab Orchard, a 
once famous place on the mountain plateau, in Cum- 
berland County; the third at White's Plain, in Put- 
nam County, on the western foot of the mountain; and 
the fourth near Pekin, also in Putnam County/^ 
There were few settlers there at the time; Indians were 
now and then seen, and buffalo were still to be found; 
but a few years later settlers came from Virginia, 
Pennsylvania and East Tennessee, among them the 
widow and some of the children of the great Indian 
fighter and first governor of Tennessee, Gen. John Se- 
vier. In time there also came the ancestors of Samuel 
L. Clemens (''Mark Twain"), the most popular humor^ 
ist in the world, locating at Jamestown, Fentress 
County. 

The landmarks mentioned are rife with memories. 
There were tears and laughter, love and hate, hope and 
despair, and all the vicissitudes and changes that are 
the heritage of mankind. We can see the sturdy hus- 
bandman as he goes about his labors to tame the wild 
country, and the housewife blithely doing the duties 
allotted to her; neighbors enjoying each other^s com- 
panionship with greater pleasure because so rare, and 
the young people, as the Indian youths and maidens 
before them, experiencing love's young dream, their 
souls radiant in the light that never was on land or sea; 
revolutionary veterans Avho had seen service at Valley 
Forge or the Cowpens or along the Brandywine, now 
entitled to somewhat of rest, fishing in the beautiful 



12 Thk Backward Trail. 

streams, maJdng wolf traps, or hunting the turkey for 
pastime. And those log walls, still intact after the 
forms that held immortal souls have fallen to dust, 
serve to recall Dohson's lines on the Pompadour's fan: 

"Where are the secret's it knew? 
Weavings of plot and of plan? 
But where is the Pompadour, too? 
This was the Pompadour's fan!" 



CHAPTER II. 

THE EARLIEST- DISCOVERY OF TENNESSEE SOIL, AND 
THE DESTRUCTION OF OLD FORT LOUDOUN. 

It is an interesting tradition that Ferdinand De 
Soto, a Sioanish explorer, first discovered the magnifi- 
cent country now known as Tennessee more than two 
centuries before its first settlement. Fired by the idea 
of conquest and urged by the hope of finding gold in 
the New World, he sailed from Havana May 12, 1539, 
with an army of about one thousand men, besides the 
marines. There were also three hundred and fifty 
horses. He passed through the domains of a number 
of Indian rulers, meeting with considerable opposition, 
and finally reached the eastern border of Tennessee. 
Keeping a western course, he arrived, in April, 1541, in 
sight of the Indian village, Chisca, supposed to be the 
present site of Memphis. According to Irving, the 
Indians of this province knew nothing of the approach 
of the strangers until the latter rushed in upon them, 
taking many prisoners and pillaging the houses. De 
Soto remained in the town some twenty days, and hav- 
ing had four floats constructed, crossed the Missis- 
sippi river at a point known as the Chickasaw Bluffs, 
and passed with his band of adventurers to the failure 
(13) 



14 Thk Backward Trail. 

that awaited his aspirations and dreams. More than 
a century later, La Salle, passing down the Mississippi, 
built a fort called Prudliomme, near Memphis, in 
1714 the French built the successor of Prud'homme, 
calling it Fort Assumption, and still later Fort San 
Ferdinando de Barancas was erected by the Spanish 
government at the mouth of Wolf river in the hope of 
building the Southwestern Empire of North America. 
When the United States came into possession of the 
Mississippi Valley, the fort was taken possession of by 
the Americans and dismantled, while Fort Pickering 
was built further down the river. 

It is thus seen that the western section of the State 
was early discovered. But it was the last to be opened 
up to civilization, the treaty of 1818, by which the 
Chickasaw Indians relinquished their rights to Ten- 
nessee, being the beginning of its history. Mem- 
phis, the metropolis of that section, had its birth in 
the early part of 1819. The virgin wilderness around 
it at that time, Phelan says, bore scarcely a trace of the 
human hand; the foundations of both city and county 
were laid under the shadows and around the roots of 
trees in the midst of tangled undergrowth. The old 
blockhouse still stood in Fort Pickering and a few 
straggling shanties clustered around a large and 
primitive structure known as the public w^are- 
house, sometimes called Young's warehouse, in the 
neighborhood of Wolf river. Between these two were 
thick cane-brakes and a heavy and luxuriant growth of 



West Tennessee. ' 15 

timber, through which a narrow footpath ran from 
Fort Pickering to Wolf river. The growth into im- 
portance of the city has been marvelous. Though 
founded after Nashville and Knoxville had acquired 
size and reputation, it is now hardly rivaled in the 
Southwest, from a commercial standpoint. A city of 
beauty and prosperity, it stands above the Father of 
Waters, interesting as its namesake on the Nile 
when at its best. In its midst bud and bloom 
the flowers of a semi-tropic clime; the fragrance of the 
garden of Gul permeates its residence streets; along its 
business throughfares the baled snow of the cotton- 
fields of Mississippi, Arkansas and West Tennessee is 
drawn, promising warmth and comfort for the world's 
millions. The entire western section has developed 
also, until one, considering it, recalls the tribute a 
Southern singer has paid the South: "No fairer land 
hath fired a poet's lays, or given a home to man." 

Despite the early discovery of the western borders, 
and the fact that the Chickasaw Bluffs have played an 
important part in the political history of Spain, France 
and England, the first actual settlements were made in 
the East; though the home of the Chickasaw Indians, 
West Tennessee was not the arena in which the blood 
of the pioneers was spilled to make a commonwealth. 
The Watauga neighborhood is given as the scene of the 
first settlement; but it is not venturing too much to 
say that had Fort Loudoun escaped destruction in 
1760, that WQuld have been the point from which col- 



i6 Thk Backward Traii.. 

onization would have spread. The old fort has a pa- 
thetic interest, and has been considered of sufficient 
importance to induce Miss ^lurfree, a leading Ameri- 
can fictionist, to make it the subject of one of her latest 
novels. 

The fort was built in 17 57 on the Tennessee river 
about thirty miles from the present city of Knoxville, 
and a mile above the mouth of the Tellico. It and 
another had been erected by the British in the Chero- 
kee territory with the consent of the Indians, for pro- 
tection against the French and their allies, and was 
one hundred and fifty miles west of the nearest white 
settlement. Garrisoned by about two hundred British 
regulars, the traders, hunters and a few settlers soon 
made the place the centre of a thriving settlement. 

While the tragedy of Fort Loudoun excites our hor- 
ror, the Indians had great provocation. In many in- 
stances the whites had treated them as though the In- 
dians had no rights that should be respected, and as 
if indej^endence were a thing to be monopolized by the 
Anglo-Americans. For instance, the first man who 
was known to have resided among the Cherokees — the 
destroyers of the fort in question — was Cornelius 
Dougherty, an Irishman who established himself as a 
trader among them in 1690. He introduced horses 
among them, and they soon began stealing the animals 
from the whites. In retaliation, the whites, living 
along the seacoast of Carolina, encouraged the tribes 
living nearer the Atlantic to steal the Cherokees them- 



Troublk With Indians. 17 

selves. Hundreds of the latter were captured, sold to 
the colonists, and by them consigned to hard labor in 
the malarial swamps, or shipped to Cuba. 

The cause which brought about the massacre of the 
Fort Loudoun garrison reflects no credit on the w^hites. 
The British and French were at war with each other, 
and the Cherokees assisted the former. The Indians 
lost their horses during the expedition, and on return- 
ing through Western Virginia to their homes, after the 
capture of Fort Du Quesne, they appropriated a num- 
ber of horses which they found running in the woods. 
With an ingratitude that was never exceeded by the 
Indians themselves, the German settlers of that region 
attacked the unsuspecting Indians in the night, and 
killed and scalped fourteen. They also took a number 
of prisoners. It is stated that these ingrates, who for- 
got that the Cherokees had assisted in protecting their 
homes from the French, imposed the scalps they took 
on the government for those of French Indians, and 
obtained the premium allowed at that time by law. 
This naturally aroused a deep resentment, and Ocon- 
ostota, head king or archimagus of the Cherokees, set 
about to seek swift and bloody revenge. 

The Cherokees at once deserted the English and be- 
gan their massacres. Gov. W. PL Littleton, of South 
Carolina, made preparation to force them into repent- 
ance and submission. He levied a considerable army. 
Awed, and designing, probably, to gain an advantage, 
the savages sent commissioners to treat with Little- 
2 



1 8 Thk Backward Trail. 

ton. He ordered them into the rear of the army. Af- 
ter arriving at Fort St. George, the commissioners, 
twenty-one chiefs, were held as prisoners there, the 
Indians agreeing to their retention until an equal 
number of those who had slain the inhabitants on the 
frontiers should be given up in exchange for them. 

Atta-Kulla-Kulla, vice-king, was a party to this 
agreement, but desired that some of the chiefs who 
were imprisoned might be liberated to assist him in 
placating the Indians. Oconostota and two other 
chiefs were given up, while other Indians were 
taken in exchange. 

These twenty-one hostages remained in prison about 
two months, when the Cherokees resolved to attempt 
their liberation by stratagem. The army had just left 
the country, and on February 16, 1760, two Indian 
women ap])eared at Keowee, on the opposite bank of 
the river, no doubt to assist in carrying out some 
scheme of Oconostota. An officer of the garrison went 
out and began talking with them. Presently Ocono- 
stota came up. He drew from the fort two other offi- 
cers to converse with him, declaring that he wanted a 
white man to go with him to have a talk with Gov. Lit- 
tleton; among these officers was Capt. Cotymore, 
against whom the head chief entertained a deep-rooted 
hatred. By some means a plan seemed to have been 
concerted between the hostages and the Indians with- 
out — for it was soon shown that a body of savages were 
in hiding near where he and the whites were talking. 



A Fort Attacked. 19 

When promised a guard to go with him to Charles- 
ton, the chief, who held a bridle in his hand, said he 
would go and catch his horse. Then quickly turning 
himself about, he swung his bridle three times over his 
head. This was a signal, and immediately about thirty 
guns were discharged at the group of officers. Coty- 
more received a fatal wound, and the other officers, 
Lieutenants Foster and Bell, were wounded. They 
were enabled to reach the fort with Capt. Cotymore, 
and ordered the hostages put in irons. An English- 
man laid hold of one of them, and was stabbed to 
death, and in the scuffle which now took place two or 
three other whites were wounded and driven from the 
place of confinement. The affair was by this time be- 
ginning to look serious. 

The attacking Indians were yelling outside, while 
the hostages were shouting to encourage their friends 
and making every possible effort to prevent being 
shackled by the British. 

The fort proved too strong for Oconostota's primi- 
tive methods, and successfully resisted his siege. Infu- 
riated at the treachery of the Indians and the bloody 
resistance of the hostages, the whites committed a 
piece of brutality that may be justifiable in contending 
with savages, but a thoughtful public will doubt the 
exigency; they cut a hole in the roof of the room in 
which the Indian prisoners were confined, and shoot- 
ing down, butchered the entire number! 



20 Thk Backward Trail. 

The war soon began to rage in all its horrors. Gath- 
ering a large force of Cherokee braves, Oconostota and 
Atta-Kulla-Kiilla invested Fort Loudoun. They had 
on March 3 assaulted with musketry the fort at Nine- 
ty-six, with no effect, and had met Col. Montgomery 
and his force near their village at Etchoe, and, accord- 
ing to Haywood, "treated him so rudely that, though 
he claimed the victory, he retreated to Fort St. George, 
whence he shortly afterward Avent to New York." 
They were to meet with a measure of success at Fort 
Loudoun. 

They besieged this place for weeks. Provisions be- 
came so scarce that the whites were compelled to eat 
horses and dogs. In vain did the little garrison look 
for Col. Montgomery or for any other succor. Eng- 
lishmen were defending — and the stubbornness of the 
defense can be imagined; each soldier could say, as 
those who lafer defended Lucknow: 

"Handful of men as we were, we were English in heart 
and in limb, 
Strong with the strength of the race to command, to 
obey, to endure; 
Each of us fought as if hope for the garrison hung but 
on him; 
Still — could we watch at all points? we were every day 
fewer and fewer." 

Finally the savages agreed to terms; the whites were 
to be allowed a safe retreat to the settlements beyond 
the Blue Ridge. The latter on August 7, 1760, threw 



Massacred. 21 

into the river their cannon and buried a quantity of 
ammunition, and taking with them such small arms as 
were necessary for hunting, began their march to 
South Carolina settlements. A number of Indians ac- 
companied them, ostensibly as guards. 

They traveled unmolested for about twenty miles. 
Hope began to rise exultant again — the savages seemed 
to be keeping faith. But toward evening the Indian 
guard disappeared in the wilderness. Eeaching a place 
afterwards called Katy Harlin's Eeserve, they camped. 
Xever, perhaps, to these three or four hundred whites 
just out of the mouth of hell had the mocking-bird's 
song in the woods sounded more cheerful; never had 
the sun gone down in more gorgeous beauty; never 
had the insects made evening more sweetly musical. 

The night passed without event, but about daybreak 
there was a yell of savages and the report of fire-arms. 
Many of the whites were killed at the first volley, while 
the Cherokees rushed into the camp, destroying, as one 
chronicler has it, the entire party — ^men, women and 
children — except three men who were saved by the 
friendly exertions of Atta-Kulla-Ivulla, and also six 
others who had gone on ahead as advance guard. 
Among those captured was Stuart, a friend of Atta- 
Kulla-Kulla, who afterwards, as agent to the Southern 
Indians, incited them to take part with England in 
our war for independence, and to attempt the massacre 
of the entire white settlements of AYestern North Car- 
olina. 



22 The: Backward Traii.. 

Between two and three hundred men, besides 
women and children, fell in this slaughter. The In- 
dians made a fence of their hones. For years there- 
after the place was shunned as a spot accursed. Emi- 
gration along that route ceased, and, unmolested, the 
wolves hovered near and the vultures wheeled above 
the veritable Place of Skulls. 

In the summer of 1761 the Cherokees were forced to 
sue for peace after their towns had been burned, their 
cornfields laid waste and their stock slaughtered or 
driven away by the avenging whites. 



CHAPTEE III. 

THE WATAUGA ASSOCIATIOX, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF 
AX ATTEMPT TO DESTKOY THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS. 

*^'East Tennessee began to be permanently settled in 
the winter of 1768-69," says Haywood. ''Ten families 
of these settlers came from the neighborhood of the 
place where Raleigh now stands, in Xorth Carolina, 
and settled on the Watauga. This was the first settle- 
ment in East Tennessee." 

Capt. William Bean came from Virginia in 1769, 
built a cabin on the Watauga, near the mouth of 
Boone's creek, and his son, liussell, was the first white 
child born in Tennessee. But the small settlement in 
the wilderness was added to by other settlers every 
month, and by 1772 AVatauga was quite a flourishing 
community. Among these later arrivals should be 
mentioned James Eobertson, especially since he was to 
become ao prominently connected with affairs, first at 
Watauga and later on the Cumberland. He came to 
Watauga in 1770, but not making the settlement his 
home until 1771. 

. Phelan properly says that the settlements along the 
Watauga were made at a time peculiarly fortunate; the 
Indian warfare h^ad exterminated nearly all of the In- 

(23) 



24 1*HB Backward Traii,. 

diaii race in the neighborhood; the Sliawnees existed 
only in small, wandering detatchmentS;, and were gen- 
erally hidden away in the lofty recesses of the Cum- 
berland Mountains; the Creeks of the Cumberland re- 
gion had been massacred by the Cherokees, and the 
latter, emboldened by continued success, had invaded 
the Chickasaws and been repulsed with terrible slaugh- 
ter. For the time being, and until the Cherokees had 
recuperated sufficiently to make war on the whites, 
the chief danger arose from bands of marauding In- 
dians. 

Other settlements sprung up in the meantime — that 
in Carter's Valley, in the neighborhood of where Rog- 
ersville now is, and that on the Nollichucky, its prime 
mover being Jacob Brown, who opened a store. Forts 
were built at these places for their protection. 

There is much confusion in the history of the 
earlier settlement of the eastern section up to 1772. 
There had sprung up communities in Carter's Valley 
and on the Nollichucky; the settlers had been seriously 
puzzled as to whether they belonged to Virginia or 
Xorth Carolina, and the Watauga people at last re- 
solved to form an association for their own protection. 
Phelan says that at first only two original settlements 
lived under the articles — presumably Watauga and 
Carter's Valley, for, he says further, that in 1775 the 
Brown or Nollichucky pioneers, being composed 
mostly of Tories, were compelled to ta.ke the oath to the 
Colonial cause in the war with Great Britain by the 



The Watauga Association. 25 

Wataugans and a band of Virginians from Wolfs Hill, 
and from that time on became identified with those 
who framed the articles of association. Roosevelt^ 
Bancroft, Ramsey and other writers api^ear somewhat 
confused on this point, as they do on the mode of gov- 
ernment of Watauga. But it seems clear that the asso- 
ciation was formed in 17T2, and that the settlers lived 
under it — virtually in an independent colony — until 
attached to Xorth Carolina. 

Mere speculation on these points is foreign to this 
work, for like the silliness called higher criticism of 
the Bible, it tends only to confuse; and the rewards of 
so much contention seem hardly worth while. 

In 1776 the population of the three settlements was 
estimated at • six hundred, and about that time they 
gave their section the name of Washington District, 
and petitioned to be annexed to Xorth Carolina. 
Their petition was accepted, and the first independent 
government on Tennessee soil came to an end. It was 
to be followed in a few years by that of the govern- 
ment of Franklin, also to collapse before the ma- 
chinery of the State of Tennessee was to be put into 
regular motion. 

The residents of Washington District had declared 
themselves in favor of the cause for American inde- 
pendence, and their patriotism came near proving 
their extinction. In 1776 they were suddenly warned 
of an impending outbreak by the Indians. One Cam- 
eron, under the direction of John Stuart, who had 



26 The Backward Traii.. 

been saved from death in the Fort Loudoun affair by 
Atta-Kulla-Kulla, assembled the chiefs of the Chero- 
kees and bribed them to attack the district, to destroy 
its inhabitants to a man, and then invade Virginia and 
North and South Carohna. It is unnecessary to say 
that the people were horrified over the news. They 
were acquainted with Indian warfare, its horrors, its 
mercilessness. Backed by England, what might not 
the savages accomplish? 

Seven hundred warriors were to make the attack in 
two divisions, each division to attack one of the two 
strongest forts, Watauga and Heaton. # This scheme 
was divulged to the whites by Nancy Ward, a friendly 
Indian woman. 

The forts were strengthened and provisioned, and 
runners were sent through the settlements to give the 
people warning and to tell them to repair at once to 
the forts. Five small companies, raised partly in Vir- 
ginia, assembled, the oldest officer being Capt. Thomp- 
son. They marched to Heaton's station. There they 
remained for a day or two, when it was learned that 
the Indians, in a body of three or four hundred, were 
actually approaching. Just above the fort were flat 
lands, with a few bushes and saplings, but otherwise 
open; it was decided by the whites to go out and meet 
the enemy on the flats. The corps consisted of one 
hundred and seventy men, with an advance of ten or 
twelve troops in front. Eeaching the flats, the ad- 
vance discovered a small party of Indians and drove 



Preparing for Batti^k. 27 

them back^ but did not meet the main body. A halt 
was made and a council was held by the whites, the 
conclusion being that they would probably not meet 
the savages that day, and it would be prudent to re- 
turn to the fort. During the consultation, and while 
the soldiers were formed in line, some one made an un- 
favorable remark relative to the lack of courage of 
one of the captains. "He soon heard of it," says Hay- 
wood, "and the corps having commenced its returning 
march in the same order as they had marched forward, 
the captain whom the remark implicated, being at the 
head of the right line, after going a short distance, 
halted, and addressed the troops in defense of himself 
against the imputation. The whole body collected into 
a crowd to hear him. After the address was over the 
offended captain took the head of his line, marching on 
the road that led to the station. But before all the 
troops had fallen into the ranks, and left the place 
where they had halted, it was announced that the In- 
dians were advancing in order of battle in the rear! 
Capt. Thompson, the senior officer, who on the re- 
turning march was at the head of the left line, ordered 
the right line to form for battle to the right, and the 
line which he headed to the left, and to face the en- 
emy. In attempting to form the line the head of the 
right seemed to bear too much along the road leading 
to the station, and the part of the line farther back, per- 
ceiving that the Indians were endeavoring to outflank 
them, were drawn off by Lieut. Robert Davis as 



28 The Backward Trail. 

quickly as possible, and formed on the right, across 
the flat to a ridge, and prevented them from getting 
around the flank. This movement of Lieut. Davis cut 
ofl: a part of the right line, which had kept too far 
along the road. Some of them, however, when the 
firing began, returned to the main body, which was 
drawn up in order of battle, and a few of them kept on 
to the station. The greater part of the officers, and 
not a few of the privates, gave heroic examples to cause 
the men to face about and give battle. Of the latter 
Eobert Edmiston and John Morrison made conspic- 
uous exertions. They advanced some paces toward the 
enemy, and began the battle by shooting down the 
foremost.^' 

The chief who led the Indians was Dragging Canoe. 
His warriors began the attack with great fury, the 
foremost yelling: ^'The Unacas are running; come on 
and scalp them!" Their first effort was to break 
through the centre of Thompson's command and then 
crush his flanks in detail. But they were not used to 
direct fire, and after a few volleys fled, leaving twenty- 
six warriors dead. The wounded of the savages died 
till the whole loss amounted to about forty. Not a 
white man was killed, and only five wounded, who sub- 
sequently recovered. This battle took place in July, 
1776. 

Hand to hand conflicts were not uncommon in those 
times. One which took place in the battle on the flats 
is recorded. A soldier named Moore had shot a chief. 



Hand-to-hand Conflict. 29 

wounding him in the knee, but not so badly as to pre- 
vent him from standing. ''Moore advanced toward 
him/' says Kamsey, who got the story from Moore, 
"and the Indian threw his tomahawk, but missed him. 
Moore sprang at him with his hirge butcher knife 
drawn, which the Indian caught by the blade, and at- 
tempted to wrest from the hand of his antagonist. 
Holding on with desperate tenacity to the knife, both 
clinched with their left hands. A scuffle ensued in 
which the Indian was thrown to the ground, his right 
hand being nearly severed and bleeding profusely. 
Moore, still holding the handle of the knife in the 
right hand, succeeded with the other to disengage his 
own tomahawk from his belt, and ended the strife by 
sinking it into the skull of the Indian.'' 

But what of affairs at the Watauga fort? 

Agreeably to plans which had been divulged to the 
whites, the attack of a body under Chief Old Abraham 
was made on that station the same day. He was to at- 
tack Fort Lee, in the Xollichucky settlement, but the 
inhabitants had dismantled its fortifications and re- 
treated to Watauga. 

The defense at the latter place numbered only forty, 
under the command of James Eobertson, who was af- 
terwards to figure conspicuously in the Middle Ten- 
nessee section. 

The Indians attacked at sunrise, but were repulsed 
with loss. They skulked around the fort for three 



30 The: Backward Trail. 

weeks, finally retreating on the appoach of assistance 
from Virginia. During the siege they captured Mrs. 
William Bean, and killed some men and boys who were 
making their way to the fort for protection. A boy by 
the name of Moore was carried to one of their towns 
and burned at the stake. "The garrison was only forty 
men strong," observes Phelan, ''but they were under 
the command of an officer not less resolute, not less 
fertile in resources, not less cool in the presence of 
danger, than the Englishman who, three years later, 
gained immortality and an Fnglish peerage by the de- 
fense of Gibraltar against equally overwhelming odds. 
The achievements of one were viewed with wondering 
admiration by the civilization of the world. The 
achievements of the other, though not less worthy of 
all honor and renown, were performed under the shad- 
ows of a primitive forest in a frontier fort, against un- 
recorded savages. James Robertson deserves for his 
memorable defense of the Watauga fort a place not 
less illustrious in the annals of Tennessee than that 
accorded to Lord Ileathfield in the annals of England. 
More than three hundred Indians were held at bay by 
less than forty men capable of service, and despite 
stratagems, and all the arts and cunning of an Indian 
warfare, midnight attacks and daily onslaughts, were 
eventually compelled to raise the siege and retire." 

A third body of Indians, commanded by The Eaven, 
went up Carter's Valley, but finding the people shut 
up in forts, returned to their towns. Another band 



Indians Sub for Peach. 31 

which came np the Clinch, visited with fire and toma- 
hawk the whole country from what is now Sullivan 
County to Seven-Mile Ford, in Virginia. But North 
Carolina and Virginia sent bodies of troops to protect 
the frontiers, and these, with the settlers, entered the 
Cherokee country, compelling the Indians to sue for 
peace and to cede much of their territory. 



CHAPTER IV. 

JOHN SEVIER^ SOLDIER AND STATESMAN, AS WELL AS 
A NOTICE OF THE STATE OF FRANKLIN. 

Few states of the Union have had as citizens a 
greater number of men of pronounced individuality 
than Tennessee — men who, if they had Hved in other 
epochs, might have had their deeds ineradicahly im- 
pressed on the preserving tablets of the centuries. 
Place and occasion have much to do in making living 
names. No matter how much originality and genius 
one has, these attributes may not be recognized unless 
circumstances intervene in their behalf. Admiral 
Dewey, whose brilliant genius conceived the master- 
ful stroke at Manila in the war between America and 
Spain, would have perhaps died without being con- 
sidered above mediocrity as a naval officer had the war 
never materialized. If our civil war had not occurred, 
would Grant and Lee, Sherman and Jackson, Meade 
and Johnston have had the reputation which is theirs? 

Had Gustavus A. Henry, of Tennessee, been given 
the part in Eoman history filled by Cicero, he would 
have acted it so perfectly that the world would not 
have missed the chief of Roman orators. Henry Wat- 
terson would have wielded as trenchant and scholarly 

(32) 



John Sevier's Popularity. 33 

a pen in the domain of criticism as Jeffrey. Robert 
L. Taylor, who might have been a great actor or poet 
if he had not been an orator, and in whose composi- 
tion are strangely blended the highest type of humor 
and pathos, statecraft and the plain Avisdom of the 
every-day man, power to sway by eloquence and deprive 
hatred of its venom by the subtlety of his badinage — 
would be one of the most versatile and brilliant 
figures of the times had he been born in an era and a 
sphere where originality is given the opportunity which 
it must generally await. 

Although but lately becoming appreciated by the 
public at large for his excellencies, perhaps no Ten- 
nesscan since the first settler's cabin was built in the 
State has stood so high for such length of time in 
the afTections of the people of the commonwealth he 
assisted so materially in building as Gen. John Sevier. 

He wgs identified with the first days of the Watauga 
Association; was early made colonel of Washington 
County; assisted in running down Ferguson, the gal- 
lant British general, and in bringing about the capture 
of his command at King's ]\Iountain — which battle was 
the turning point of the war between the colonies and 
England; took part with Gen. Francis Marion in the 
closing :cenes of the revolution; and from the close 
of the war till the cession to the United States by 
Xorth Carolina, in 1784, of all the territory which 
is now the State of Tennessee, he spent the greater 
part of his time protecting the frontiers and chastising 
.3 



34 Thb Backward Trail. 

the Indians for their depredations upon the whites. 
It can be very readily surmised that with such a 
career the popularity of Sevier among his countrymen 
must have been considerable^ and their confidence in 
him great; and that should a crisis arise in their 
affairs he would be the person to whom they would 
look for guidance. 

That crisis was coming. 

The Assembly of Xorth Carolina, during the April 
session in ITS J:, appreciating the burdens under which 
Congress was then laboring — the harassment of public 
debt and the clamor of creditors — resolved to act upon 
the suggestion that "States owning vacant lands throw 
them into the common stock for defraying the ex- 
penses of the late war." It ceded all the territory 
which constitutes Tennessee, if Congress would accept 
it within two years. When the settlers heard of this 
— believing that they w^ould be left without any form 
of government for two years, during which time they 
could not hope for protection or assistance from either 
Xorth Carolina or the United States — they were 
naturally enraged. They reasoned that the East Ten- 
nessee settlements — wdiere really the only disaffection 
existed — were not entitled to a superior court, and so 
crime would have to go unpunished; it was not lawful 
for a brigadier-general to call into service the militia 
of the county, and therefore what protection could 
they have from the Indians, Avho were still aggressive 
'and intent on checking the growth of the settlements? 



Talk of Separation. 35 

In moments of resentment and distrust, a falsehood, 
having a modicum of specioiisness, may for a while 
really get the ascendency of truth; and there were 
not wanting ambitious sjoirits to mislead and frighten 
the people with probabilities that were very remote, 
to say the least. There were, too, many persons who 
were honest enough in the belief that the settlers 
had not only been mistreated, but that unless a sepa- 
rate government were formed by the Western settle- 
ments, their very existence would be jeopardized; 
Sevier was among the latter class. 

The people became more excited as the weeks went 
by, and though later on the Assembly repealed the 
cession act and acceded to other demands of the set- 
tlers, forming the militia into a brigade and making 
Sevier brigadier-general among other things, they 
clamored still for separation. Sevier himself on the 
14th of December, 1784, after the x\ssembly had met 
and adjourned, addressed the electors assembled at 
Jonesborough, saying that ^^the grievances which the 
people complained of are redressed, and my recom- 
mendation to them is that they proceed no further 
in their design to separate from North Carolina." He 
more than once urged this view, but unfortunately 
Capt. William Cocke in an interview with him erased 
the impression he had received toward the government 
of North Carolina. The movement to separate was 
carried out, and as might have been expected, since 
he was the most popular person in the discontented 



36 Thi^ Backward Trail. 

settlements, John Sevier was in 1785 elected Governor 
by the assembly of the new State, which was given 
the name of Franklin, v^ith its capital at Greeneville. 

As Gilmore correctly contends, Sevier made a great 
nhstake in allowing himself to be forced into the leader- 
ship of the new^ State, v/hich was destined to be of such 
short duration. It was pcrr.aps the mistake of his 
life, and not only brought him enemies and made him 
an outlaw for awhile, but really came very nearly in- 
volving him in a trouble with Spain, which would 
have turned the course of his destiny from that honor- 
able groove which ultimately led to fame and a grate- 
ful people's love. 

The new State — the predecessor of Tennessee — was 
short-lived. One of the chief causes for its toppling 
was the growing sentiment among the Franklin people 
themselves for reconciliation v.'ith North Carolina. 
John Tipton, who at the beginning of the talk of 
separation was an ardent friend of the cause, was one 
of the most prominent deserters. This, it has been 
said, v.-as through his Jealousy of Sevier because the 
latter was looked to in reverence by the people and 
honored with the highest oflice in their gift. The 
fact that one fails to be thus selected is not always 
indicative of a lack of fitness; witness the failure of 
Clay and AVebster. But in the case of Tipton it was 
different. He was courageous, but not possessed of 
great intellectual force. He becam.e Sevier's bitterest 
critic, as weM as an implacable enemy to the cause 



A Mercilkss Enemy. 37 

dear to Sevier's heart, the success of the new State. 
The person vvho has been an abettor in an undertaking, 
and then changes and reforms because of a change of 
circumstances or because he sees more clearly, is apt 
to be considered vaciiiating. If he becomes a boister- 
ous and malignant changeling, he is then almost cer- 
tainly regarded as a renegade. The pu1)]:c has formed 
the latter estimate of Tip.ton, and it will be a task 
for the historian to change this idea. 

After Sevier became governor of Franklin, Tipton 
inaugurated a relentless war on liim until the new 
State collapsed in 1188. Though Sevier was neces- 
sarily chagrined by his failure, this enemy was still 
too vindictive to show generosity. He it was who ar- 
rested the ex-governor and had him placed in irons. 
While a number of their acquaintances and comrades 
were at Jonesborough in November, 1788, says Hay- 
wood, giving a succinct description of the interesting 
border episode, Sevier camie riding into iovni with ten 
or twelve men. This was soon after his return from 
an expedition against the Cherokees. "There he 
drank freely/' continues the historian, "and in a short 
time a controversy arose between him and i\Iajor 
Craig, who at that time lived where Mar^^dlle now 
stands, respecting the killing of those friendly Indians 
in the spring of the year, vrhich occasioned the war 
with them that then, existed.* Craisr censured Sevier 



*This has reference to the Kirk butchery, mentioned in Chapter X of 
this v,*ork. 



38 The Backward Trail. 

for not preventing the murder, Craig having been 
present when it happened, and under the command 
of Sevier. Those who were present interposed, and 
brought them to friendly terms. The general (Martin, 
who was of the number), Maj. King, and Col. Love 
left them and set off for Col. Love's house, fourteen 
miles distant. Xot being able to go that far, Gen. 
Martin and King stopped at a house near Col. Robin- 
son's. After they left Jonesborough another quarrel 
arose between Sevier and Caldwell, the former advanc- 
ing with a pistol in his hand, and Caldwell with a 
rock. The jiistol accidentally fired, and shot one of 
Sevier's men in the abdomen. Shortly after this 
Sevier left Jonesborough and came by a place near 
Col. Robinson's., where Col. Love had taken up and 
stopped at Robinson's still house, where they all drank 
freely, and after some time separated. After Sevier 
left Jonesborough, Caldwell, with whom he had quar- 
reled, went to Tipton, and in going and returning 
collected eight or ten men, with Avliom he went in 
pursuit of Sevier. Arriving at the house where Col. 
Love lodged, he went with them to Col. Robinson's 
wdiere Gen. Martin and Maj. King were. Tipton there 
had a close search made for Sevier, supposing tliat 
as there was a good understanding between Robinson 
and him, the latter might be there. The pursuers 
then went to the widow Brown's, where Sevier was. 
Tipton and the j^arty with him rushed forward to 
the dooT fif common entrance. It was about sunrise. 



Sevier Arrested. 39 

Mrs. Brown had just risen. Seeing a party with arms 
at that early hour, well acquainted with Col. Tipton, 
prohahly rightly apprehending the cause of this visit, 
she sat herself down in the front door to prevent their 
getting into the house, which caused a considerable 
bustle between her and Col. Tipton. Sevier had slept 
near one end of the house, and on hearing the noise 
sprung from his bed, and, looking through a hole in 
the door-side, saw Col. Love, upon which he opened 
the door and held out his hand, saying to Col. Love: 

" ^I surrender to you.' 

"He was in his undress, and Col. Love led him to 
the place where Tipton and Mrs. Brown were con- 
tending about a passage into the house. Tipton, on 
seeing Sevier, was greatly enraged, and swore that he 
would hang him. Tipton held a pistol in his hand, 
sometimes swearing that he would shoot him, and 
Sevier really was afraid that he would put his threat 
into execution. Tipton at last became calm, and or- 
dered Sevier to get his horse, for that he would carry 
him to Jonesborough.'' 

Haywood has given the outlines of a typical border 
scene, and those who have witnessed similar occur- 
rences in some back-countr}^ neighborhood can resort 
to the memory to give the affair the proper coloring. 
The dirt road leading through a mountainous and, at 
that season, bleak country; the scattered log cabins 
from which at the approach of the crowd women and 
children emerged to get a glimpse of Xollichucky Jack, 



40 The Backv/xVrd Trail. 

who in tlie gallant way lie had saluted them graciously; 
the little streams running acioss the road, where the 
horses paused to slake their tliirst; perhaps some loud 
talking now and then, wherein gasconade entered large- 
ly — for the horder product, the bully, was not lacking 
in most collections. Tlie proceedings at the still house 
form a striking feature of the picture, as do the 
pursuit by Caldwell and Tipton, and the latter's swag- 
ger and bluster as he thought he at last had his hated 
rival where he could crush him. 

When tjie prisoner arrived at Jonesborough, Tipton 
ordered him put in irons, and from there had him 
taken to j\Iorganton, where he had no doubt "out- 
raged law" would make an example of the ex-governor. 

But Sevier had friends who did not " forsake him. 
As hate had been the prime factor in this offense 
against his liberties, it is somevrhat natural for Ten- 
nesseans, at least, to feel a thrill of pleasure over the 
outcome of the arrest; for persecution usually arouses 
sympathy for the victim in the bosoms of those who 
like fair play. 

A few days afterwards, Sevier's trial was being held 
at Morganton, North Carolina.. The crowd in attend- 
ance was of course large, owiug to the wide reputation 
of the Indian fighter and audacious leader of the young 
commonwealth which had caused the State so much 
trouljle. Sevier might or might not have been un- 
easy regarding the result of tlie investigafion. He 
had not seen his old friends, James Cozby and 



The Rescuk. 41 

JSTathaniel Evans, when they rode up in front of the 
court-house, and left standing there a Sj3lendid tiior- 
oughbred horse which v/as owned by Sevier; but when 
the two entered the court room, he sized up the situa- 
tion quickly, and prepared to act. 

Cozby, narrates Plielan, stepped in front of the 
judge, and in a loud voice asked if he was done with 
that man, pointing to Sevier. In the midst of the 
confusion produced by tliis unexpected interlude, 
Sevier made a rush for the door, sprang upon his horse, 
and was soon far up the mountain road, where he was 
joined by a party of friends.* There v/as no firrther 
effort to try him. He was even elected to the Korth 
Carolina senate from Greene County, and v\'as allowed 
to take his seat. Xot only this, he was soon appointed 
brigadier-general of the western counties; and Tipton 
finally saw that it was useless to try to repress him 
and wisely gave up, though his hatred lasted through 
life. 

Sevier's popularity v/as swift and permanent. Soon 
after his reconciliation with IsTorth Carolina he was 
elected to Congress. He was for six terms governor 
of Tennessee, and elected to Congress again in 1811. 
In 1815 he was appointed by President Monroe to 
locate the bou.ndary lines of the Creek territory, and 
died in Alabama on September 21, 1815. His remains 

*This dramatic incident— the rescue of Sevier— is declared by later 
writers than Phelan to be a fiction. But all proceedings against him 
were suddenly stopped. 



42 The Backward Trail- 

were removed from Alabama in 1889, and re-interred 
in the court-lioiise yard at Knoxville, where a suitable 
granite monument now marks the last resting-place 
of the dust of one of whom it can be truthfully said, 

*' Whatever record leap to light, 
He never shall be shamed." 

For some unaccountable reason, Sevier^s memory has 
been allowed to fall into neglect. He was honest, 
chivalrous, devoted to his family, indefatigable in his 
efforts to protect and further the interests of the 
pioneers, a gallant officer in the revolutionary war, 
an able statesman and without guile, and, as before 
remarked, no public man of Tennessee has approached 
him in personal popularity, if we except, perhaps, Hon. 
Robert L. Taylor. The tributes of the historians are 
worth much. They are unstinted in Sevier^s case. 
Says Haywood, who died only about a decade after 
Sevier passed away: "He was among the frontier peo- 
ple, who adored him. He had by nature a talent for 
acquiring popular favor. He had a friendly demeanor, 
a pleasing address, and, to crown all, he was a soldier.'' 
Gilmore, in a historical vork published in 1898, 
observes: "I have called him a hero, a soldier, and a 
statesman; but he was more than all of these; he was 
a civilizer, a good organizer, a nation-builder." And 
Phelan pays him this deserved tribute: "To say that 
he was in his sphere a statesman of the first order of 
ability, and that as a warrior he was excelled by none 



A Great Figure. 43 

who engaged in the same mode of warfare, and that 
he never lost a battle, claims for him a liigh place 
among the great men of the world. Only he acted on 
a small stage. There can be no doubt that he is the 
greatest figure in Tennessee history, and there is as 
little doubt that outside the mountains and valleys of 
East Tennessee he is, from a popular standpoint, as 
little known as . if he had been one of the shepherd 
kings of Egypt." 

It is hoped that before the fad of "revivals" shall 
have come to an end, the public will awaken fully 
to the worth of this interesting American. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE SETTLING OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE, NOTING THE 
BEGINNING OF INDIAN ATROCITIES. 

In one of the histories of Tennessee it is held that 
the first settler of Middle Tennessee was a trapper 
by the name of Thomas Sharpe Spencer. He ar- 
rived on the Cumberland in 1778 with a few compan- 
ions, but considering the dangers surrounding the 
forming of a settlement too great, all but Spencer re- 
turned. He took up his abode in a large hollow tree 
near what is now known as Castalian Springs, in Sum- 
ner County, and remained there through the winter. 
"He saw no one and heard not the sound of a human 
voice," to quote Phelaii. "It is related as liistorically 
truo that he passed once not far from the cabin in 
which dwelt a hunter in the service of T)e Mumbreun, 
and that the hunter, seeing the imprint of his enorm- 
ous foot, became frightened and fled through the wil- 
derness to the French settlements on the Wabash. His 
gigantic figure, alone in the midst of the endless forests, 
wandering and hunting throughout their vast depths, 
the herald of a coming civilization, cool, courageous, 
and self-reliant, going to sleep at night by a solitary 
camp-fire, with the hooting of the owls and the scream- 

(44) 



The Cumberland Region. 45 

ing of panthers around him and with no assurance 
of the absence of a deadher foe^, is one of tlie most 
picturescfiie in the history 01 southv/estern pioneers." 
But in 1T69-70 Casper ^.iansker, Abraham Bledsoe and 
John Eains visited as hunters and explorers the east 
side of Cumberland river; and in the year 1771, Mans- 
ker, accompanied by Joseph Drake, Isaac Bledsoe and 
others, visited the country. Again, in 1775, Mansker 
arrived in the Cumberland region, but no one re- 
mained, so that Spencer seemed really the earliest to 
have a vrell-defined mission as a pioneer. 

Within a year from Spencers arrival quite a num- 
ber of emigrants reached the Cumberland and built 
cabins and cast their corn crops. Among these were 
James liobertson, properly called the founder of 
Middle Tennessee, George Freeland, William Xeelly, 
l-^dward Svranson, James Ilanly, Mark Robertson, 
Zachariah Wells and William Overall, and a negro man. 
After their arrival another small party under Casper 
Mansker joined them. They settled near the Sulphur 
Spring on the site of Xashviile, not far from the ruins 
cf the cabin built some years before by the French 
trader, De Mumbreun. Later on Robertson's company 
vras to be joined by their families as vrell as additional 
settlers under the guidance of Col. John Donelson, 
who were to m^ake their journey by water. There 
were some women and children with the Mansker 
party. 

When the settlers came to the Salt Lick, the present 



46 The Backward Trail. 

site of Nashville, there was no evidence that the coun- 
try had ever been in cultivation. ""Nothing was pre- 
sented to the eye/' says Haywood, 'i^ut one large plain 
of woods and cane, frequented by bulfalos, elk, deer, 
wolves, foxes, panthers and other animals suited to 
the climate. The land adjacent to the French Lick 
which Mr. Mansker in 1769 called an old field, was 
a large open piece, frequented and trodden by buffalo, 
whose large paths led to it from all parts of the 
country, and there concentred. On these adjacent 
lands was no undergrowth nor cane as far as the creek 
reached in time of high water; or, rather, as far as 
the backwater reached. The country as far as to Elk 
river and beyond it, had not a single permanent in- 
habitant except the wild beasts of the forest, but it 
had been inhabited many centuries before by a numer- 
ous population. At every lasting spring is a large col- 
lection of graves, made in a particular way, with the 
heads inclined on the sides and feet stones, the whole 
covered with a stratum of mold and dirt about eight 
or ten inches deep. At many springs is the appearance 
of walls inclosing ancient habitations, the foundations 
of which were visible wherever the earth was cleared 
and cultivated, to which walls entrenchments were 
sometimes added. These walls sometimes inclose six, 
eight or ten acres of land; and often they are more 
extensive. Judging from the number and frequency 
of these appearances, it cannot be estimated but that 
the former inhabitants were ten times, if not twenty 



Appearanck of Indians. 47 

times, more numerous than those who at present 
(18,:83) occupy the country." 

The winter of 1779-80 was an unusually severe one, 
and the pioneers experienced a rough time. There 
was nothing for their stock to subsist upon but cut 
cane. The settlers sustained life by eating bear and 
buffalo meat; while in February heavy and continuous 
rains set in. 

They saw nothing of the Indians until January, 
1780. Early in that month some of the settlers who 
had been in the woods in pursuit of game discovered 
tracks, which they surmised were Indians' from the 
fact that moccasins were worn, and the toes of the 
tracks were none of them turned outward like those 
of white people. Their suspicions proved correct. A 
party of about sixty Delaware Indians made the foot- 
prints. They came from the direction of Caney Fork 
river, and camped near the head of Mill Creek. When 
questioned by the whites, they claimed that they had 
only come into the neighborhood to hunt. It is be- 
lieved that they were the first Indians to molest the 
whites on the Cumberland. 

Robertson's party soon saw the necessity of taking 
shelter in blockhouses and stations. That at the bluffs, 
Nashborough, was the principal station, but others 
were built — Freeland's, north of Nashborough; Eaton's, 
on the east bank of the river; Gasper's, ten miles north 
at the present town of Goodlettsville; Asher's, three 
miles from Gallatin; Bledsoe's, eight miles from Gal- 



48 Thk Backward Traii,. 

latin; Donelson's^ on Stone's river, near the Stone's 
Eiver bridge on the Lebanon and Nashville pike; and 
Fort Union, in a bend of the river six miles above 
Nashborongh. Laws similar to those for the govern- 
ment of the Watauga Association were also made. 

The caution of the settlers was timely, for tiiey 
were not long to remain undisturbed. 

In April, 1780, the Indians bep-an a series of butch- 
eries which lasted in the Cumberland settlement for 
years. In that month Keywood and Milliken, two 
hunters, coming to the fort, stopped on Eichland Creek, 
five or six miles west of Xasliborough, and as Keywood 
stepped down to the bank of the creek to drink the 
Indians fired upon Milliken and killed him. Murders 
were after this committed almost every day for months 
by the Indians, who regarded neither age nor sex. In 
many instances they cut off the victims' heads. Mans- 
ker's station was broken up, the stationers fleeing to 
ISTashborough and to Kentucky; and the Renfroes and 
their relatives who founded a settlement on Red river 
at the present site of the little city of Clarksville w^ere 
driven away, and on their return for their property 
were massacred. Donelson's Station was also aban- 
doned. It is hardly a matter for wonder that a num- 
ber of the settlers returned to the older colonies, while 
others would have gone had it not been for the 
scarcity of horses. 

James Robertson discouraged retreat. Few men have 
shown a more stubborn resistance to failure, a bolder 



Robertson's Character. 49 

front to disaster. ''There are characters whom we ad- 
mire with even and impassionate serenity but upon 
whom we rely with utter abandon/' says a biographer. 
"Eobertson's character was of this kind. It was well- 
built, with solid masonry and broad foundations. lie 
is eminently trustworthy. We are filled w^ith a kind 
of joyous admiration of our humanity when we see 
blended in him so much modesty and so much forti- 
tude. He possessed rather fortitude than bravery. 
The lack of fear was such a part of his being that 
we learn to take it as a matter of course. It was a 
part of the times and the people. But his fortitude 
lifts him to an altitude. It never wavers, it never 
quails, it never retreats.'' 

He had early taken his position as leader, and he 
performed prodigies to encourage the settlers and to 
insure their safety and success. 
4 



CHAPTEE VI. 

FUKTHEIi MENTIOX OF EVEX^TS IN THE CUMBERLAND 

SETTLEMENTS AND JAMES EOBERTSON's 

ACHIEVEMENTS. 

John Sevier was the most prominent frontiersman 
of the East Tennessee settlements^ hut James Robert- 
son won enviable distinction at Watauga and in the 
Cumberland community as a pioneer. He was a native 
of Virginia, having been born in Brunswick County 
on June 28, 1742. He visited the Watauga and Boooie's 
Creek settlement in East Tennessee in 1770. After 
having made a crop there through assistance rendered 
by a settler named Honeycnt, he returned to North 
Carolina. The next year, however, he again joined the 
Wataug'a colony and took an active interest in the 
formation of the Watauga association and in its sub- 
sequent affairs. This association was probably formed 
in 1772, as stated, and was the first scheme of govern- 
ment ever devised for the people occup^dng Tennessee 
soil. 

As early as 1772 Robertson Vv-as found by his fellow- 
settlers to possess a judgment which they could rely 
upon. In that year a line was run between Virginia 
and the Cherokee hunting grounds, and it left the Wa- 
(50) 



James Robertson. 51 

taiigans within the boundaries of the latter, whereupon 
it was decided to make an effort to secure a lease from 
the Indians. It was secured b}^ Eobertson and John 
Boon. After this was accomplished the event was cel- 
ebrated by gymnastics and races by the whites and 
Indians; but in the evening of the day of the celebra- 
tion one of the Indians was slain by some men from 
A\"olf's Hill, Virginia, who were taking part in the ex- 
ercises. The murder was impolitic as well as wanton, 
and would have produced dire retaliatory results had 
it not been for Eobertson, who made a journey to the 
chief town of the Indians, a hundred and fifty miles 
away, to appease them by a promise to punish the mur- 
derer or murderers if to be found. The courage 
evinced in this instance and on subsequent occasions 
was probably remembered when the attack was a few 
years afterwards made on Watauga Fort by Old Abra- 
ham, and insured his command of that post. His he- 
roic defense thereof is mentioned in a previous chap- 
ter. 

Some time in 17 78 he decided to emigrate to a point 
on the Cumberland river, and with a party of eight 
set out through Cumberland Gap, finally reaching the 
section where Kashville stands. In this new enterprise 
he acted in conjunction with. John Donelson, of Vir- 
ginia, afterwards the father-in-law of Andrew Jackson. 

From his arrival at the Great Salt Lick in 1779, 
Eobertson naturally took the leadership, devising a 
form of government for the settlers in conjunction 



52 Thk Backward Trail. 

with Col. Eichard Henderson (who really instigated 
the Cumberland settlement), encouraging them 
through all their difficulties, fighting and planning 
and using diplomacy as occasion required, and justly 
earning his title of father of Middle Tennessee. 

Reference is made elsewhere to the difficulties be- 
setting the settlers during their first months on the 
Cumberland. Though quite a number of emigrants 
had arrived, and Nashborough, Union, Gasper's, Bled- 
soe's, Asher's, Freeland's and Eaton's forts had been 
erected, the whites were decimated by marauding In- 
dians; hearts were burdened by news of the massacre 
of the Eenfroe settlement, established near the site of 
Clarksville by Moses Eenfroe in the year 1779; game 
was driven out of the immediate neighborhood; food 
had become so scarce that walnuts and hickorynuts 
had to be saved by the cart load as winter edibles, 
while the supply of powder was running short. The 
idea of leaving their homes began to find lodgment in 
the minds of the settlers. During the crisis Eobertson 
agreed if they woukl remain on the Cum.berland, to 
go where ammunition could be had and obtain a sup- 
ply, and this he did — ran the gauntlet, as one historian 
pertinently observes. 

On his return from his perilous journey on January 
15, 1781, he stopped for the night at Fort Freeland, 
and was thereby instrumental in saving its inmates 
from massacre. That night the settlers had been care- 
less enough to retire without appointing a guard. The 



A Night Attack. 53 

night was cold and clear, and the winter moon threw 
a mantle over the sleeping lowlands and aroimd the 
rugged shoulders of the surrounding hills. The quiet- 
ude of a dream-scene hovered over the blockhouses; 
the rough palisades running from house to house were 
transformed into a strange beauty, frost-covered and 
scintillating. Like shifting silhouettes, a band of In- 
dians approached, blending with the shadows of the 
pickets and cabins. A half a hundred gathered, and 
crept closer to the gate, wliich was secured with a 
chain. One of the boldest reached the clasp, but in 
loosening it caused such a noise, despite his careful- 
ness, as to awaken Eobertson. Springing from his bed, 
the pioneer gave the cry of "Indians!" It was none 
too soon, for as he gave the warning the savages were 
crowding through the gate. The settlers seized their 
guns and began firing into the ranks of the intruders, 
who retreated, firing as they ran, when the entrance 
was again secured. A negro belonging to Eobertson 
was killed, but no other harm was sustained. 

The distress of the settlers continued, despite the 
efforts of the more energetic and courageous to ame- 
liorate their troubles. The Indians had adopted the 
policy of driving the game from the country, prosecut- 
ing it vigorously through the fall of 1780 and the win- 
ter of 1781. The stationers were therefore forced to go 
to distant sections to procure food, encountering many 
dangers. On one occasion a party of twenty men went 
up Caney Fork as high as Flynn's creek, and after be- 



54 The Backward Traii.. 

ing out only a few clays returned with one hundred and 
five bears^ seventy-five hufialos and eighty odd deer. 

As James Eobertson had been proving his worthi- 
ness to Icad^ his wife soon showed that she was a help- 
meet indeed, and a heroine. It is said by Putnam and 
Gilmore that it was her forethought and courage that 
figured materially in the settlers' victoiy in the "Bat- 
tle of the Bluffs/' which assured, in 1781, the contin- 
uance of the settlements. That battle, though few were 
involved on either side, wa.s one of the really thrilling 
events of soutliwestern border warfare. 

The fort at ^N'ashborough was erected upon the bluff 
between the southeast corner of the square and Spring 
street (so as to include a bold spring which then issued 
from that point). It was a log building two stories 
high, with portholes and lookout stations. Other log 
houses were near it, and all enclosed with palisades or 
pickets firmly set in the eaxth, having the upper ends 
sharpened. There was one large entrance, with the 
lookout station above for the guard. From this point 
the country could be viewed for miles in two direc- 
tions, but the view was obstructed to the w^est and 
southwest by a thick forest of cedar trees, beneath 
which there was a dense growth of privet bushes. 
Upon lands with deeper soil and less rock, instead of 
cedar and privet, there were forest trees of large growth, 
and thick canebrakes. The country was well suited to 
a skulking enemy and for ambushing purposes. 



Battled op thk Bluffs. 55 

On the night of April 1, 1781, or early in the mojn- 
ing of April 2, a large body of Cherokees ventured near 
the fort of Nashborough and formed an ambush. Af- 
ter daylight three bucks fired at the fort and ran off. 
Nineteen of the settlers inounted their' horses and, 
rushing out, pursued them. Gilmore says that Robert- 
son vras among the number of pursuers. The histo- 
rians are generally silent on this point. If he was of 
the number his usual caution seemed to have deserted 
him on that occasion. 

When the whites had gone a considerable distance 
from the fort, reaching a branch, they discovered In- 
dians in the creek and in the nearby underbrush. The 
latter arose and fired a Volley at the horsemen, who dis- 
mounted to give them battle. A number of the whites 
were killed — Peter Gill, Alexander Buchanan, George 
Kennedy, Zachariah White and Capt. Leiper; and 
James Manifee, Joseph ^loonshaw and Isaac Lucas 
were wounded. 

Presently another body of savages were discovered. 
They \vere hid in the brush and cedars, and were evi- 
dently intending to rush into the fort in the rear of 
the combatants. But the horses of the settlers broke 
loose when the firing was going on, and a number of 
the Indians went in pursuit of them, while the whites, 
seeing that they were being cut off, attempted to re- 
gain the fort. Would they succeed? The chances 
were certainly for a period against them. Their horses 
were gone; the Indians were swarming aronnd them 



56 Thk Backward Trail. 

in overwhelming numbers; taken by surprise, the set- 
tlers were badly demoralized. 

Meanwhile those who were left at the fort were nat- 
urally in a state of the greatest anxiety. They could 
not see those who had gone out to battle, but their 
riderless horses, dashing by the fort, led them to be- 
lieve the nineteen had been killed or captured. The 
fort, they thought, would next be attacked, and they 
resolved to sell their lives dearly. Even the women 
took guns and axes to assist in repelling the expected 
assault. 

Mrs. Eobertson happened to think of the dogs in the 
fort, which were yelping and endeavoring to get out. 
The animals had been trained to hate the Indians. 
Abe Castlemian, one of the first settlers, had a dog 
named Eed Gill, which would leave the trail of a bear 
or other wild animal to follow that of an Indian. Why 
not turn the raving pack outside in this hour of ex- 
tremity? Acting on the impulse, Mrs. Robertson or- 
dered the gate opened. The dogs rushed through the 
open, over the eminences, and made such a fierce at- 
tack on the Indians, whose line had not yet been 
broken, that they were compelled to defend themselves 
from the canine foe instead of endeavoring to capture 
or kill the whites. Then those left alive of the latter, 
noting the diversion, and taking advantage of it, made 
for the fort, all but two reaching it in safety. These 
two were Isaac Lucas and Edward Swanson. The for- 
mer had his thigh broken by a ball, and was left by his 



Result of thk Battlk. 57 

comrades. The Indians wanted his scalp, and some 
of them ran toward him. He killed the one nearest, 
and continued dragging himself toward the station. 
Other savages attempted to reach him, but the station- 
ers kept up such a brisk fire upon them that the brave 
fellow finally reached the gate and was taken in. 

Swanson, in retreating toward the fort, was pur- 
sued by an Indian, who placed his gun against him, at- 
tempting to fire; the gun only snapped. Swanson 
grasped the weapon, twisting it to one side and spilling 
the priming from the pan. The Indian then struck 
him with the gun barrel; he then delivered a second 
blow, this time with the stock. This knocked Swan- 
son down on all fours. John Buchanan, seeing Swan- 
son's situation, ran to his relief, shooting at the In- 
dian. The latter retired to a stump, and Swanson and 
Buchanan made their escape. 

This battle practically decided the fate of the Cum- 
berland settlements. The assailants were completely 
discomfited. 

That night another party of Indians came near the 
fort and fired upon it, but a swivel, loaded with gravel 
and pieces of pots, was discharged at them and they 
withdrew. 

James Robertson had been made colonel, which 
gave him command of the military equipment of the 
various stations. In 1783 he was elected a member of 
the General Assembly of Xorth Carolina, and it was 
after his return to Nashborough from his duties as 



58 The Backward Trail. 

representative at Tarborough, that he found the condi- 
tions about as desperate as they had been for many 
months; children were killed and "chopped" by small 
prowling bands of savages; men were shot from am- 
bush and their bodies split. In May^ 1787, Mark, a 
brother of Col. Robertson, was killed. These outrages 
were traced to Indians living near the Muscle Shoals, 
in the Tennessee river, and liobertson resolved at last 
to invade their retreats. Two friendly Chickasaws, 
one of them known as Toka, offered to become guides, 
and were accepted. 

A force of one hundred and twenty men was gath- 
ered and placed under Col. Robertson's command. In 
addition to this, some boats containing provisions were 
sent around, these being commanded by David Hay. 

The march was made ^s rapidly as possible, and late 
one evening the force stopped within hearing of the 
rapids. Campfires v/ere made, supper was prepared 
and eaten, and the band of avengers, with their in- 
trepid leader, spread their buffalo robes and" blankets 
on the ground, and in groups conversed of the topic 
uppermost in their minds — the Indians and their dep- 
redations. The roar of the distant falls was mellowed 
into tones low and soft as the bass notes of some vast 
musical instrument played by unseen fingers; wild ani- 
mals, attracted by the aroma from the camp, prowled 
among the underbrush at a safe distance from the 
light; the fragrance of wild flowers, bruised by some 
passing hoof, came in upon the breeze ever and anon; 



K.ECONNOISSANCE. 59 

and above all, the stars twinkled like the campfires of 
nomads in the upper desert. 

The night passed without an attack from the In- 
dians. Were they unaware of the approach of the 
whites? At dawn the troops were mounted and soon 
on the march; and by noon had reached the river. 
While spies were sent out to search for the path which 
the Indian guides said led to a crossing, the main body 
sought concealment until night. 

The Indian town they intended attacking lay near 
a large spring, where the town of Tuscumbia, Ala., 
now stands. It was on the farther side of the stream, 
the Creeks and Cherokees occup3dng that side of the 
Tennessee. The inhabitants of the village were mostly 
Creeks, and a more desperate set could not have been 
found among all the tribes. 

The spies, in their reconnoitering, discovered some 
savages on the opposite bank, apparently on the look- 
out for the invading party; for they passed about cau- 
tiously from tree to tree in a stooping posture. After 
awhile they entered a canoe, and paddled it into the 
river some distance; then, evidently suspecting no foes 
near, they plunged into the water for a bath and swim, 
finally returning to the bank and disappearing in the 
cane. Capt. Rains, with a squad of fifteen men, had 
been ordered up the river to look for Indians and a 
crossing place, but making no discoveries, he returned 
about sunset to the main body. 

Col. Robertson resolved to attempt a crossing at day- 



6o Thk Backward Trail. 

light the next morning at the point where the Indians 
had been seen bathing, some of tlie scouts proposing 
to swim over and bring back the canoe which had been 
used by the savages. These scouts, while on the mis- 
sion for the canoe, had also gone out and examined 
some nearby cabins and found them deserted. 

After patching up the boat the troops finally suc- 
ceeded in crossing, some therein, others clinging to the 
sides, while a number swam upon or beside their 
horses. "With the exception of those who had passed 
over in the boat," Putnam declares, "most of them were 
there with their clothes perfectly wet. Some had put 
their clothes in their hats or tied them around their 
heads and hats, hoping thus to keep them dry. But 
during the time allowed for their horses to eat some 
com, and for the men to breakfast off jerked venison 
and parched corn, the wet clothes w^ere hung upon the 
bushes to dry. An army in dishabille! An invading 
army within six miles of the enemy's stronghold, and 
on the enemy's side of that broad river! They them- 
selves described their whole appearance as most laugh- 
able." 

As they prepared to move a considerable shower 
came up, making the journey through the woods some- 
what disagreeable. The path through the barrens, 
Toka., the guide, said, led to the cornfields near the 
Indian town. Beaching the fields, and then Cold Wa- 
ter Creek, they perceived the town on the opposite 
side. The Chickasa.ws suggested that upon discover- 



A Day of Si^aughter. 6i 

ing them the Indians would flee to their boats at the 
mouth of the creek, and Capt. Kains was ordered with 
a few men to intercept the enemy in case this predic- 
tion should prove true. The main body then struck a 
double-quick, crossed the creek and were soon in the 
town. Many^ of the inhabitants fled precipitately to 
their boats, and were in the act of shoving off into the 
river when the men under Capt. Eains fell upon them, 
and the work of slaughter began — those under Eobert- 
son engaging as soon as they reached the scene. 
Twenty-six Indians were killed in the boats and the 
river. Three French traders and a white woman were 
also killed and one or two Indian women captured. 
There were few women seen; and it is surmised that 
Indians like those — thieves and murderers, who had 
collected there — probably had no wives and children 
with them. 

The town was burned, and the whites camped that 
night near the ruins. Next morning they began their 
homeward march, reaching the settlements after an ab- 
sence of nineteen days, and without the loss of a man. 

The party which started by water under Hay was 
less successful. Eeaching the mouth of Duck river, 
one of the boats was fired into by Indians concealed 
on the bank, at which fire Joseph Renfroe was killed 
and John Top, Hugh Eogan and Edward Hogan were 
wounded. After a consultation the party concluded 
to return home. 

"When the settlements were made into a territory. 



62 The Backward Trail. 

and William Blount appointed Governor, Robertson 
became brigadier-general of the Mero District, the 
name now given to the' Cumberland settlements. In 
1791, at the time of the Holston Treaty, he visited the 
Cherokee nation, seeking to dissuade them from fur- 
ther hostilities, but their aggressions were but tem- 
porarily stayed. In IT 92 the Creeks hoped to throw 
the Cumberland people off their guard, and a number 
of their chiefs visited Gen. liobertson at Xashville to 
smoke the pipe of peace. AVhile he received them cor- 
dially, he was not deceived; and continued to strengthen 
the militia. The inroads of the savages were not dis- 
continued, which testified to the foresight and judg- 
ment of Gen. Eobertson, alrhough Gov. Blount w^as 
often led to believe in the ludians' protests of friend- 
ship. These aggressions drove the people into a de- 
termination to retaliate. As much as he regarded the 
orders of Gov. Blount to prevent an incursion into the 
enemy's country, patience at last ceased to be a virtue; 
and on September 6, 1794, he ordered the destruction 
of some of the Cherokee towns. The point of attack 
was the five lower towns of the Chickamaugas — a tribe 
of the Cherokees, notorious above all the Indians for 
treachery, hatred of the whites and courage — of which 
the village of Nickojack had the greatest notoriety. 
The incursion, known as the Mckojack Expedition, 
the outcome of which brought comparative peace to 
the settlers of Tennessee, will be treated in another 
chapter. 



Entertaining Indians. 63 

Robertson was reprimanded severely and unjustly 
for this c-liastisement of the Indians^ and was so much 
wounded thereby that he tendered his resignation^ but 
nothing more came of the matter. 

xlfter Gen. Eobertson had ceased to act as brigadier- 
general of Mero District, he retained his office of Tem- 
jDorary Agent to the Chickasaws and Choctaws; and 
during this time vras often annoyed by visiting In- 
dians Avho, though friendly, proved their capacity to 
bore. A notice of one of these visits may not be unin- 
teresting in this sketch. In January, 1795, he was in- 
formed by Colbert and other Chickasaw chiefs that 
they, with several warriors and a number of women 
and cliildren, would visit him at Xashville. 

They arrived promptly, and an effort was made to 
make them enjoy themselves. The entertainment of 
a hundred hungry Indians was necessarily expensive, 
and a few persons contributed corn, meal and meat, 
while some of the chiefs and their families were lodged 
in the houses of the citizens. On one occasion a grand 
dinner party was gotten up by subscription to do honor 
to '^General"' Colbert; it was C[uite an affair for that 
day. Eev. Thomas B. Craighead was a Presbyterian 
minister who had been among the settlers for years, 
undero-oinc? all the vicissitudes of frontier life for the 
sake of his Maker; and at one of his services during 
their sojourn Colbert and his staff were attendants. 

The entertainment accorded savage guests by Gen. 
Eobertson is described bv Putnam: '^We have never 



64 Thk Backward Trail. 

heard of such marked and flattering attentions paid 
to these more tlian half-naked savages, as were 
sometimes given hy Gen. Kobertson, to tame their sav- 
age natm-es and secure their good will/' he narrates: 
"They uniformly called him 'a good man;' and such a 
scene as w^as exhibited at the last Chickasaw visit to 
the General might well employ the skill of a Hogarth. 
Beneath the lofty and beautiful maples which sur- 
rounded Gen. Eobertson's station, might be seen a va- 
riety of the copper-colored race, mostly crouched upon 
the ground. The best dressed of the females have a 
sack (not overly long, 3^et long enough to hide the 
strip of 'stroud' or baize around the waist and hips), 
with moccasins and leggings, ornamented by beads and 
tinkling bells; and across the shoulders a dirty blanket. 
The hair is braided and hangs down like a mandarin's. 
Such was the attire of Jacsie Moniac, the wife of 'Gen- 
eral' Colbert. She had around her a full representa- 
tion of the half-breed general — the parents' 'small 
arms.^ Near by sat Molle-tulla, the tall wife of the 
mountain leader, 'Captain' Piomingo, whom General 
Robertson had instructions to equip with clotliing and 
ornaments. There were others, the better-halves of 
chiefs and warriors of great pretensions and little 
worth. If we could transfer another group of Creeks, 
and stand or seat them not afar off, and such as Gen. 
Robertson not long before entertained, we should see 
the partner of the Mad-dog and her whelps, the Turkey 
and her brood, the Hanging Maw, and all that set of 



Robertson's Diplomacy. 65 

gourmands. And now, with all this crew, unwashed, 
uncombed, unclouted — and unhung, seated or moving 
around that tall and sedate jierson, mark how he pats 
their heads and smiles at their recognition. Who else 
but Gen. Kobertson would pause in such a group, and, 
dipping his finger in the vermilion which the squaw 
held in one hand, and the black paint in the box, 
would give to the faces of these not naturally ill-look- 
ing urchins the wrinkled appearance of a monkey, the 
head of a cat, of the wily fox or sly raccoon I" 

This treatment of the Indians by Gen. Kobertson 
gives us a key to his character, and may go far toward 
explaining the alleged '"intrigues'' with Spain, after- 
wards charged against him. It is true that the diplo- 
mat's strength and success may lie as much in that 
suavity which permits the other party to draw flatter- 
ing conclusions from the diplomat's actions if he 
wishes, as in his dignity and unyielding attitude. 
While having no admiration for the Indians, Gen. 
Robertson had too much judgment to let them believe 
he VN-as not all appreciation. Bent on placating the 
Spanish authorities in America for the sake of the 
struggling settlement looking to him for guidance, he 
did not feel himself at fault if Gov. Mero, the Spanish 
representative, misconstrued his friendship. He 
trusted that his well-known Americanism, as well as 
his reputation for probity, would shield him from the 
suspicion of desiring to forsake his country for Spain — 
of wishing to become a subject of Spain while seeking 
5 



66 The Backward Trail. 

so strenuously to throw off the yoke of England that 
Tories in the settlements in which he was leader were 
hardly allowed tlie liberty of slaves. The extent of his 
sinning in the correspondence with Mere was to assure 
the Spaniard of the friendship of the people of the 
struggling Cumberland settlements, and in return for 
this he hoped to win Mero's good will to the extent of 
exercising an influence for peace over the Creeks and 
other hostile Indians. 

Gen. Robertson continued to serve his people and 
the government ably and faithfully for many years af- 
ter the State was admitted into the Union, and died 
^^in harness." His death occurred at the Chickasaw 
Agency September 1, 1814. He was buried there, but 
in 1825 his remains were removed to Nashville and 
reinterred. 



CHAPTER VII. 

AN INTERESTING RECORD, TOGETHER WITH A TRAGEDY 
ON stone's RIVER. 

Eeference has been made to the erection of Don- 
elson's station, on Stone's river, and to its subsequent 
abandonment. Also to the fact that Col. John Donel- 
son, who founded the station, was to go to the Cumber- 
land settlements by water, embarking at Fort Patrick 
Henry, on the Holston river. 

Donelson's boat was called The Adventure, and car- 
ried a sail, while there were in addition several canoes 
and other craft. He kept an account of his trip, 
headed ^^Journal of a voyage intended by God's per- 
mission in the good boat Adventure, from Fort Patrick 
Henry, on Holston river, to the French Salt Springs, 
on the Cumberland river, kept by John Donelson." It 
has been preserved, and for clearness and directness is 
a model, and quite interesting, despite its lack of color. 
The diary is given entire: 

December 22, 1779. — Took our departure from the 
fort and fell down the river to the mouth of Reedy 
creek, where we were stopped by the fall of water and 
most excessive hard frost; and after much delay and 
many difficulties, we arrived at the mouth of Cloud's 
creek, on Sunday evening, Feb. 20, 1780, where we lay 

(67) 



68 The Backward Trail. 

until Sunday, the 27th, when we took our departure 
with sundry other vessels bound for the same voyage, 
and on the same day struck the Poor Valley Shoal, 
together with Mr. Boyd and Mr. Eounsifer, on which 
shoal we lay that afternoon and succeeding night in 
much distress. 

Monday, February 28, 1780. — In the morning, the 
water rising, we got off the shoals after landing thirty 
persons to lighten our boat. In attempting to land on 
an island, received some damage, and lost sundry arti- 
cles, and came to camp on the south shore, where we 
joined sundry other vessels also bound down. 

Tuesday, 29th. — Proceeded down the river and en- 
camped on the north shore, the afternoon and day fol- 
lowing proving rainy. 

Wednesday, March 1st. — Proceeded on, and en- 
camped on the north shore, nothing happening that 
day very remarkable. 

March 2. — Rain about half the day; passed the 
mouth of French Broad river, and about 12 o'clock Mr. 
Henry's boat, being drawn on the point of an island by 
force of the current, was sunk, the whole cargo much 
damaged, and the crew's lives much endangered, which 
occasioned the whole fleet to put on shore, and to go to 
their assistance, but with much difficulty baled her 
out and raised her, in order to take in her cargo again. 
The same afternoon Reuben Harrison went out a 
hunting, and did not return that night, though many 
guns were flred to fetch him in. 

Friday, 3d. — Early in the morning fired a four- 
pounder for the lost man, sent out sundry persons to 
search the woods for him, firing many guns that day 
and the succeeding night, but all without success, to 
the great grief of his parents and fellow-travelers. 

Saturday, -Ith. — Proceeded on our voyage, leaving 



A Dreary Voyage. 69 

old Mr. Harrison, with some other vessels, to make fur- 
ther search for his lost son. About 10 o'clock the 
same day found liim a considerable distance down the 
river, where Mr. Ben Belew took him on board his 
boat. At 3 o'clock p. m. passed the mouth of Ten- 
nessee river, and camped on the south shore, about ten 
miles below the mouth of the Tennessee. 

Sunday, 5th. — Cast off and got under way before 
sunrise; 12 o'clock passed mouth of Clinch; at 3 o'clock 
p. m., came up with the Clinch river company, whom 
we joined, and camped, the evening proving rainy. 

Monday, 6th. — Got under way before sunrise, the 
morning proving very foggy; many of the fleet were 
much bogged; about 10 o'clock lay by for them; when 
collected, proceeded down; camped on the north shore, 
where Capt. Hutching's negro man died, being much 
frosted in his feet and legs, of which he died. 

Tuesday, 7th. — Got under way very early; the day 
proving windy, a S. S. W., and the river being wide, 
occasioned high sea, inasmuch that some of the 
smaller crafts were in danger; therefore came to at the 
uppermost Chickamauga town, which was then evac- 
uated, where we lay by that afternoon and camped that 
night. A child was born to the wife of Ephraim Pey- 
ton. Mr. Peyton has gone through by land with Capt. 
Robertson. 

Wednesday, 8th. — Cast oif at 10 o'clock, and pro- 
ceeded down to an Indian village, which was inhabited, 
on the south side of the river. They invited us to 
"come ashore," called us brothers, and showed other 
signs of friendship, insomuch that Mr. John Caffrey 
and my son, then on board, took a canoe, which I had 
in tow, and were crossing over to them, the rest of the 
fleet having landed on the opposite shore. After they 
had gone some distance, a half-breed, who called him- 



7o The Backward Trail. 

self Archy Coody, with several other Indians, jumped 
into a canoe, met them, and advised them to return to 
the boat, which they did, together with Coody, and 
several canoes, which left the shore and followed di- 
rectly after him. They appeared to be friendly. Af- 
ter distributing some presents among them, with which 
they seemed much pleased, vre observed a number of 
Indians on the other side embarking in their canoes, 
armed and painted with red and black. Coody imme- 
diately made signs to his companions, ordering them 
to quit the boat, which they did, himself and another 
Indian remaining with us, and telling us to move off 
instantly. We had not gone far before we discovered 
a number of Indians armed and painted, proceeding 
down the river, as it were to intercept us. Coody, the 
half-breed, and his companion, sailed with us for some 
lime, and, telling us that we had passed all the towns, 
and out of danger, left us. But we had not gone far 
until we came in sight of another town, situated like- 
wise on the south side of the river, nearly opposite a 
small island. Here they again invited us to come on 
shore, called us brothers, and observing the boat's 
standing off for the opposite channel, told us that their 
side of the river was better for boats to pass. And 
here we must regret the unfortunate death of young 
Mr. Payne, on board Capt. Blackmore's boat, who was 
mortally wounded by reason of the boat running too 
near the northern shore, opposite the town where some 
of the enemy lay concealed, and the more tragical mis- 
fortune of poor Stuart, his lamily and friends, to the 
number of twenty-eight persons. This man had em- 
barked with us for the western country, but his fam- 
ily being diseased with the smallpox, it was agreed 
upon between him and the company that he should 
keep at some distance in the rear, for fear of the infec- 



KII.LED OR Captured. 71 

tion spreading, and he was warned each night when 
the encampment should take place by the sound of a 
horn. After we had passed the town, the Indians hav- 
ing now collected to a considerable number, observing 
his helpless situation, singled off from the rest of the 
fleet, intercepted him, killed and took prisoners the 
whole crew, to the great grief of the whole company, 
uncertain how soon they might share the same fate; 
their cries were distinctly heard by those boats in the 
rear. We still perceived them marching down the 
river in considerable bodies, keeping pace with us until 
the Cumberland mountains withdrew them from our 
sight, when we were in hopes we had escaped them. 
We are now arrived at the place called Whirl, or Suck, 
where the river is compressed within less than half 
its common width above, by the Cumberland moun- 
tains, which jut on both sides. In passing through the 
upper part of these narrows, at a place described by 
Coody, which he termed the "boiling pot," a trivial in- 
cident had nearly ruined the expedition. One of the 
company, John Cotton, who was moving down in a 
large canoe, had attached it to Eobert Cartwright's 
boat, into which he and his family had gone for safety. 
The canoe was here overturned, and the little cargo 
lost. The company, pitying his distress, concluded to 
halt and assist him in recovering his property. They 
had landed on the northern shore, at a level spot, and 
were going up to the place, when the Indians, to our 
astonishment, appeared immediately over us on the op- 
posite cliffs, and commenced firing down upon us, 
which occasioned a precipitate retreat to the boats. 
We immediately moved off. The Indians, lining the 
bluff along, continued their fire from the heights on 
our boats below, without doing any other injury than 
wounding four slightly. Jennings' boat is missing. 



72 The Backward Traii,. 

AVe have now passed the WhirL The river widens 
with a placid and gentle current, and all the company 
appear to he in safety, except the family of Jonathan 
Jennings, whose boat ran on a large rock projecting 
out from the northern shore, and partly immersed in 
water, immediately at the Whirl, where we were com- 
pelled to leave them, perhaps to be slaughtered by 
their merciless enemies. Continued to sail on that 
day, and floated throughout the following night. 

Thursday, 9th. — Proceeded on our journey, nothing 
happening worthy of attention to-day; floated on un- 
til about midnight, and encamped on the northern 
shore. 

Friday, 10th. — This morning about 4 o'clock we 
were surprised by the cries of, '^Help poor Jennings!" 
at some distance in the rear. He had discovered us 
by our fires, and came up in the most wretched con- 
dition. He states that as soon as the Indians had dis- 
covered his situation, they turned their whole atten- 
tion to him, and kept up a most galling fire on his boat. 
He ordered his wife, a son nearly grown, a young man 
who accompanied them, and his two negroes, to throw 
all his goods into the river, to lighten their boat for 
the purpose of getting her off, himself returning their 
fire, being a good soldier and an excellent marksman. 
But before they had accomplished their object, his son, 
the young man and the negro, jumped out of the boat 
and left him. He thinks the young man and the negro 
were wounded. Before they left the boat Mrs. Jen- 
nings, however, and the negro woman succeeded in 
unloading the boat, but chiefly by the exertions of 
Mrs. Jennings, who got out of the boat and shoved her 
off, but came near falling a victim to her intrepidity 
on account of the boat starting so suddenly as soon as 
loosened from the rocks. Upon examination he ap- 



MuscLK Shoals. 73 

pears to have made a wonderful escape, for his boat is 
pierced in numberless places with bullets. It is to be 
remarked that Mrs. Peyton, to whom was born an in- 
fant the night before — which was unfortunately killed 
in the hurry and confusion consequent upon such a 
disaster — assisted them, being frequently exposed to 
wet and cold then and afterwards, and that her health 
appears to be good at this time, and I think and hope 
she will do well. Their clothes are very much cut with 
bullets, especially Mrs. Jennings'. 

Saturday, 11th. — Got under way after having dis- 
tributed the family of Mrs. Jennings in the other 
boats. Rowed on quietly that day, and encamped for 
the night on the northern shore. 

Sunday, 13th. — Sot out, and after a few hours' sailing 
we heard the crowing of cocks, and soon came witliin 
view of the town; here they (the Indians) fired on us 
again without doing any injury. After running un- 
til about 10 o'clock, came in sight of the Muscle 
Shoals. Halted on the northern shore at the upper 
end of the shoals, in order to search for the signs Capt. 
James Robertson was to make at that place. He set 
out from Ilolston early in the fall of 1779, and Avas to 
proceed by the way of Kentucky to the Big Salt Lick, 
on Cumberland river, with several others in company; 
was to come across from the Big Salt Lick to the upper 
end of the shoals, there to make signs that we might 
know he had been there, and that it was practicable 
for us to cross by land. But to our great mortification 
we can find none, from which we conclude that it 
would not be prudent to make the attempt, and are 
determined, knowing ourselves to be in such eminent 
danger, to pursue our journey down the river. After 
trimming our boats in the best manner possible, we ran 
through the shoals before night. When we ap- 



74 The Backward Trail. 

proaclied them they had a dreadful appearance to those 
who had never seen them before. The water being 
high, made a terrible roaring, which could be heard at 
some distance among the driftwood heaped frightfully 
upon the points of the islands, the current running in 
every direction. Here we did not know how soon we 
should be dashed to pieces, and all our troubles ended 
at once. Our boats frequently dragged on the bottom, 
and appeared constantly in danger of striking; they 
warped as much as in a rough sea. But, by the hand 
of Providence, we are now preserved from this danger 
also. I know not the length of this wonderful shoal: 
it had been represented to me to be twenty-five or 
thirty miles; if so we must have descended very rap- 
idly, as indeed we did, for we passed it in about three 
hours, came to and encamped on the northern shore, 
not far below the shoals, for the night. 

Monday, 13tli. — Got under way early in the morn- 
ing and made a good run that day, 

Tuesday, 14th. — Set out early. On this day two 
boats approaching too near the shore, were fired 
on by the Indians; five of the crew were wounded, 
but not dangerously. Came to camp at night near the 
mouth of a creek. After kindling fires and preparing 
for rest, the company were alarmed on account of the 
incessant barking our dogs kept up; taking it for 
granted the Indians were attempting to surprise us, we 
retreated precipitately to the boats, fell down the river 
about a mile, and encamped on the other shore. In the 
morning I prevailed on Mr. Caffrey and my son to cross 
below in a canoe, and return to the place, which they 
did, and found an African negro we had left in a hurry, 
asleep by one of the fires. The voyagers then returned 
and collected their utensils, which they had left. 

Wednesday, 15th. — Got under way and moved on 



Disagreeable Situation. 75 

peaceably en the five following days, when we arrived 
at the mouth of the Tennessee on Monday, 20th, and 
landed on the lower point, immediately on the bank of 
the Ohio. Our situation here is truly disagreeable. 
The river is very high and the current rapid; our boats 
not constructed for the purpose of stemming a rapid 
stream, our provisions exhausted, the crews almost 
worn down with hunger and fatigue, and know not 
what distance we have to go, cr what time it will take 
us to our place of destination. The scene is rendered 
still more melancholy, as several boats will not attempt 
to ascend the rapid current. Some intend to descend 
the Mississippi to Natchez; others are bound for the 
Illinois — amono- the rest mv son-in-law and dauohter. 
We now part, perhaps to meet no more, for I am de- 
termined to pursue my course, happen what will. 

Tuesday, 2ist. — Set out, and on this day labored 
very hard, and got but a little way; camped on the 
south bank of the Ohio. Passed the two following 
days as the former, suffering much from hunger and 
fatigue. 

Friday, 24th. — About 3 o'clock came to the i^iouth 
of a river which I thought was the Cumberland. Some 
of the company declared it could not be, it was so 
much smaller than was expected. But I never heard 
of any river running in between the Cumberland and 
Tennessee. It appeared to flow with a gentle current. 
AYe determined, however, to make the trial, pushed up 
some distance, and encamped for the night. 

Saturday, 25th. — To-day wc are much encouraged; 
the river grows wider; the current is very gentle; we 
are now convinced it is the Cumberland. I have de- 
rived great assistance from a small square sail, which 
was fixed up on the day we left the mouth of the river, 
and to prevent a.nv ill-effects from sudden flaws of 



76 Thk Backward Trail. 

wind, a man was stationed at eacli of the lower corners 
of the sheet, with directions to give way whenever it 
was necessary. 

Sanday, 26th. — Got under way early; procured 
some buffalo meat; though poor, it was paiatabiC. 

Monday, 37th. — Set out again; killed a swan, which 
was very delicious. 

Tuesday, 28th. — Set out very early this morning; 
killed some buffalo. 

Wednesday, 29th. — Proceeded up the river; gathered 
some herbs on the bottoms of Cumberland, which some 
of the company called "Shawnee salad.^' 

Thursday, 30th. — Proceeded on our voyage. This 
day we killed some more bufl'alo. 

Friday, 31st. — Set out this day, and, after running 
some distance, met with Col. Pichard Henderson, who 
was running the line between Virginia and North Caro- 
lina. At this meeting we were much rejoiced. He 
gave us every information we wanted, and further in- 
formed us that he had purchased a quantity of corn in 
Kentucky to be shipped at the Falls of Ohio, for the 
use of the Cumberland settlement. We are now with- 
out bread, and are compelled to hunt the buffalo to 
preserve life. Worn out with fatigue, our progress at 
present is slow. Camped at night near the mouth of 
a little river, at which place and below there is a hand- 
some bottom of rich land. Here we found a pair of 
hand millstones, set up for grinding, but appeared not 
to have been used for a great length of time. Pro- 
ceeded on quietly until April 12, at which time we 
came to the mouth cf a little river rimning in on the 
north side, by jMoses Penfroe and his company called 
Red river, up which they intended to settle. Here 
they took leave of us. We proceeded up Cumberland, 
nothing happening material until the 23rd, when we 



Big Salt Lick. 77 

reached the first settlement on the north side of the 
river^ one mile and a half below the Big Salt Lick, and 
called Eaton's station, after a man of that name, who, 
with several other families, came through Kentucky 
and settled there. 

Monday, April 24th. — This day we arrived at our 
journey's end at the Big Salt Lick, where we had the 
pleasure of finding Capt. Robertson and his company. 
It is a source of satisfaction to us to be enabled to re- 
store to him and others their families and friends, who 
were entrusted to our care, and who some time since, 
perhaps, despaired of ever meeting again. Though 
our prospects at present are dreary, we have found a 
few log cabins which have been built on a cedar bluff 
above the lick by Capt Robertson and his company. 

x\s a result of the capture of Stuart, narrated by Col. 
Donelson, the smallpox broke out among the Indians, 
killing hundreds. The decimation of the tribes by the 
disease, as well as the cold winters, may have been the 
cause of the immunity from savage outrages which the 
settlers experienced for awhile after reaching the Cum- 
berland country. 

Soon after his arrival at N'ashborough, in 1780, Col. 
Donelson began to search for a suitable location. He 
passed up the west bank of the Cumberland to the 
mouth of Stone's river, thence up that stream until 
he reached what afterwards became widely known as 
the Clover Bottom, near the bridge, on the Lebanon 
and ISTtljhville turnpike. Here he removed with his 
family and servants and erected some shanties. There 
was a great deal of open ground in the bottoms, cov- 



78 Thij Backward Trail. 

ered with wliite clover; and these open places enabled 
him to get in his crop of corn in a very seasonable 
time. A strong fence was needed, as there were im- 
mense herds of buffalo and deer ranging through the 
forest; but Donelson's expectation was, in the absence 
of such enclosures, to watch and frighten them. This 
place was called Donelson's station. 

Having planted his corn on the south side of the 
river, he planted some cotton on the north side. The 
crops were growing rapidly, but in July there were 
such heavy rains that the corn was covered by the 
river's overflow. In addition to this calamity, the In- 
dians had already appeared on the Cumberland and 
killed some of the settlers, (.'ol. Donelson at once de- 
cided to remove to Mansker's station. 

He hunted out other lands after going to Mansker's, 
but it was too late to cast a crop and expect it to mature 
before frost. After awhile he decided to go to Ken- 
tucky, but before going he ascertained that his corn 
had not been damaged by the overflow at Donelson's, 
but had thrived and would yield abundantly. He gen- 
erously proposed to divide this crop with the settlers 
at Nashborough, and of course the offer was accepted. 
A day was agreed upon to meet and gather the crop. 
The company from Nashborough was commanded by 
Abel Gower, and others of this party were Abel Gower, 
Jr., John Randolph Eobertson, and seven or eight 
more men, white and black. That from Mansker's was 
under the direction of Capt. John Donelson, second son 
of Col. Donelson. 



MoRK Indian Butcheries. 79 

They ascended Stone's river, and,, fastening their 
boats to the bank, began gathering it and carrying it 
to the boats. They were engaged several days. Dur- 
ing each night when they were in camp, their dogs 
kept up an incessant barking. It was suggested Ijy 
some of the party that the dogs scented Indians in the 
surrounding woods. Others thought that as there was 
much fresh meat in the camp, and offal left in the 
woods where some buffalo had been killed, the wolves 
were attracted thereby, and the dogs were barking at 
them. 

During the last night's encampment the dogs rushed 
out furiously in every direction around the camps. 
There were savages lurking in the woods, their stealthy 
movemxents undoubtedly influencing the dogs. As 
used as they were to the ruses of the Indians, perhaps 
the settlers heard but did not heed the hooting of an 
owl in the wood, or the bleat of a fawn, as the In- 
dians signaled each other. And with culpable care- 
lessness they made no examination next morning 
for Indian signs, but hastened the completion of their 
loads. Capt. Donelson crossed the river and began to 
pick the cotton north of the river, but Capt. Gower re- 
fused to be delayed by trying to save the cotton, and 
drifted down the river. He had not gone far, however, 
before the Indians, who were in ambush on the south 
side, apparently several hundred in number, opened 
fire on him and his men. Some of them were killed 
outright; others jumped out into the water and were 



8o Thk Backward Trail. 

tomahawked. The fact that any escaped the merciless 
fire is due to the fact that because of the scarcity of 
powder, the Indians always loaded lightly, and to the 
further fact that their guns were of a poor quality. 
The larger portion of the savages, too, were armed 
only with bows and arrows, and blow guns and ar- 
rows. 

A white man and a negro escaped to the woods; an- 
other negro, Jack Civil, surrendered and was taken 
into captivity. The two who escaped wandered for 
about twenty hours, but finally reached the fort at 
Nashborough. John Eandolph Robertson, a relative 
of James Robertson, was among the slain. 

Capt. Donelson could see the attack from the cot- 
ton patch plainly. When the Indians fired he ran 
down to his boat and secured his rifle and ammunition. 
Rising the bank, he saw the Indians in pursuit of sev- 
eral men, those who had jumped from Gower's boat. 
He also discovered a body of savages making their way 
up stream opposite his boat. He fired at the party, 
and then rushed after his friends, who had fled into the 
cane on hearing the firing and yelling of the Indians. 

After he had overtaken the fleeing party they agreed 
upon the direction to be separately taken, so that they 
might assemble the next day upon a bank of the 
Cumberland, above the mouth of Stone's river, where 
they would attempt to cross the river and reach Mans- 
ker's station. They then separated, to prevent making 
a trail that would lead the Indians. 



Thk Escape. Si 

Having traveled till sunset, Capt. Donelson dis- 
covered a large hickory tree which had fallen to the 
ground, its leaves not yet dropped. He called in the 
wanderers, and they huddled there all night in the 
cold November rain, without fire, the winds whistling 
through the trees, the rain dropping from the shaken 
foliage, the memory of the day's tragedy in their 
minds, and the wild voices of the wilderness in their 
ears. 

They constructed a rude float the next morning and 
attempted to cross the river, hut the current invariably 
drove them back; then Somerset, a faithful servant be- 
longing to Capt. Donelson, volunteered to swim the 
river with the aid of a horse they had along, and ride 
to the station and solicit aid. The party, through the 
help of friends thus brought, finally reached the sta- 
tion. Further discouraged, Col. Donelson left soon 
afterward with his family for Kentucky. 

At this time Col. Donelson's daughter, Eachel, who 
afterwards became the wife of Andrew Jackson, was a 
girl not yet arrived at womanhood. 
6 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

TERRITORIAL MATTERS, INCLUDING SOME OF THE 
PUBLIC ACTS OF WILLIAM BLOUNT. 

Xear the entrance to the cemetery of the First 
Presbyterian Church at Knoxville, there is a plain 
stone slab partially hidden by the rank growth of 
shrubbery, and containing the inscription: "William 
Blount. Died March 21, 1800. Aged 53 years." There 
is an air of neglect about the grave; for there is no 
one to care. The people of one generation easily forget 
those of a previous one. Those who knew and loved 
him also succumbed to the changes and ravages which 
have marked a century's going. 

"The mossy marbles rest 

On the lips that he has pressed 

In their bloom; 
And the names he loved to hear 
Have been carved for many a year 

On the tomb." 

The idler pausing to glance at the old capitol not 
far off, with its gray walls and dingy little windows, 
may for a moment recall the name and career of this 
once popular man whose best years were given to Ten- 
nessee, but who now sleeps beneath the plain slab with 

(82) 



A New Territory. 83 

the simple inscription. He recalls the period in which 
Blount was governor, his friendship before that for the 
first settlers of the State, and his impeachment and ex- 
pulsion from the United States Senate; and then mat- 
ters of to-day exile the thoughts of "old, unhappy, far- 
off things, and battles long ago." 

On February 25, 1790, Benj. Hawkins and Samuel 
Johnston, members of the United States Senate from 
North Carolina, signed the deed of cession wliich made 
Tennessee a territory of the United States; the act of 
acceptance was approved April 2; and on May 26, 1790, 
an act was passed for its government. William Blount, 
an intimate friend of Washington and a popular person 
among the people of the new territory, was appointed 
governor; David Campbell became judge; and Daniel 
Smith was made secretary. On recommendation of the 
governor John Sevier and James Robertson became 
brigadier-generals of Washington and Mero Districts 
respectively. The three leading features of Gov. 
Blount's administration, as one writer correctly re- 
marks, were the contests with the Indians, the gradual 
extinguishment of their title to lands in the limits of 
the present State, and the final triumph of America 
in the diplomatic contests with Spain. 

He was, in addition to being governor of the ter- 
ritory, appointed superintendent of Indian affairs, em- 
bracing the four Southern tribes, the Cherokees, Creeks, 
Choctaws and Chickasaws. His superintendency bor- 
dered upon the frontiers of A^irginia, North Carolina. 



84 The Backward Trail. 

South Carolina, Georgia and Kentucky and Tennessee, 
within the boundaries of which the Southern tribes 
resided or claimed hunting grounds. There were con« 
stant collisions between the whites and Indians; and 
all complaints between these parties were cognizable 
by and made to him for redress. His duties were 
therefore arduous as well as delicate, and it cannot be 
gainsaid that in these affairs he displayed unusual ad- 
ministrative capacity. He was decidedly the man for 
the position. 

In his efforts to bring about peace between the In- 
dians and the United States, it was often necessary to 
meet the savages in treaty. The particulars of the oc- 
currences of one of these meetings are given by Ramsey. 
In 1791 he sent through ^laj. King and others to the 
Cherokee chiefs to meet him in a peace talk. The point 
of meeting was four miles below the confluence of the 
Holston and French Broad rivers. Gov. Blount received 
and entertained there the chiefs and head warriors with 
marked ceremonies. It may be inferred that his part 
was carried out perfectly, Avhen we reflect that — to 
quote Phelan — ^'he had perhaps caught something of 
the Old World elegance from the foreign element which 
in those days thronged our larger cities, and was him- 
self on occasions as stately, dignified, and courtly as 
any of those who frequented the salons of Paris, to 
pay light compliments to Madame Eecamier or to laugh 
at the saturnine witticisms of the Encyclopedists." The 
treaty ground was on the site of Knoxville. The gov- 



Blount and the Indians. 85 

ernor appeared in full dress, and wore a sword and 
military hat, trappings which impress the Indian always. 
He remained seated near his marquee, under the tall 
trees which shaded the Holston. His officers, civil and 
military, stood near, uncovered and respectful. Behind 
the officials in groups stood the citizens and strangers 
attracted by the occasion; the soldiery were not present. 
James Armstrong, who had seen service in Europe and 
was familiar with foreign etiquette, presented each In- 
dian to the governor after the interpreter had intro- 
duced him to Armstrong. Forty-one Indians were in- 
troduced, in order according to their age, and not after 
their rank. The delegation was very large; there were 
twelve hundred Indians, including women and children. 
The warriors were decorated with eagle feathers on 
their heads and other insignia, but were unarmed; the 
older chiefs and wise men wore the common Indian 
dress only. After the presentation was over, the gov- 
ernor opened the conference through the interpreter; 
and during its continuance the Indians observed their 
own council-house tactics — that is to say, the speaker 
alone standing, while his colleagues sat upon the ground 
in a circle around him in respectful silence, but strictly 
attentive. 

But despite Gov. Blount^s efforts to secure peace, his 
object was not readily attained. During his adminis- 
tration Gen. Sevier, Col. Doherty, Col. Beard and others 
were kept busy protecting the eastern settlements from 
the Indians, and in attacking and destroying their 



86 The Backward Trail. 

towns. So continuous had the depredations become 
that even the governor half-way decided that the de- 
struction of their towns alone would insure immunity. 
In 1793, however, a series of outrages brought about 
such a castigation from the whites as promised respite 
at last. John Watts and Double Head, two resolute 
Indian chiefs, at the head of a body of a thousand 
Cherokee and Creek warriors, decided to attack Knox- 
ville, then a very small station, having in view, per- 
haps, the stores at that place. On the evening of Sep- 
tember 21, they crossed the Tennessee river below the 
mouth of the Holston. The army presented a formida- 
ble appearance, with seven hundred painted Creeks, one 
hundred being mounted, and three hundred Cherokees, 
each individual actuated by the most savage instincts. 
They marched all night, hoping to reach Ivnoxville 
before day, but a. delay at the river prevented this. 
The delay, Eamsey says, was due mainly to an alter- 
cation between the leaders. "Knoxville being the prin- 
cipal object of attack and plunder," he continues, "or- 
ders were given by some of the Creeks to press forward 
at once, and not delay their march by stopping to dis- 
turb and plunder the smaller settlements. Double 
Head advised a different policy, and insisted on taking 
every cabin as they passed. A further cause of delay 
was the rivalry between this chief and Van, each of 
whom aspired to the leadership of the expedition. 
Upon the question, '^Shall we massacre all the inhab- 
itants of Ivnoxville, or the men only?' these savage 



Knoxville Threatened. ^ 87 

warriors differed in opinion; Van advising leniency to 
the women and children. Before the plan of procedure 
was adjusted, the night was so far spent as not to allow 
the invaders time to reach Knoxville before daylight. 
By dawn they were in a few miles of their object of 
attack, and were marching rapidly, when the United 
States troops at Knoxville, as was their custom, fired 
a cannon at sunrise. The Indians supposed from this 
that they were expected, and abandoned the attack." 

When they halted, they espied not far off the station 
of Alexander Cavet, protected by three gun-men onlv. 
It was located about eight miles from Knoxville. The 
Indians determined to attack it. The three inmates 
made the best defense possible, killing a Creek and a 
Cherokee, and wounding three more. Strange to say, 
the Indians were held at bay for some time by the 
spirited defense. They then sent Bob Benge, a half- 
breed, with a proposal that if the station were sur- 
rendered, its inmates should not be killed. The terms 
were accepted. As the whites left the house, they 
were attacked by Double Head and others, and were 
all killed and mutilated with the exception of Alex- 
ander Cavet, Jr., a lad. He was spared through the 
interposition of Watts, only to be killed later in one 
of the Indian towns. It should be stated to the credit 
of Benge that he did all in his power to save the victims 
after their capitulation. 

The savage horde marched in the direction of Clinch 
river, and Gen. Sevier began at once making prepara- 



88 The Backward Trail. 

tions to invade the Indian country. His army with 
all reinforcements nmnbered six or seven hundred 
mounted men. Here, too, was a formidable array of 
lighting men, quite as much so as that which appeared 
a few days before under the command of Watts and 
Double Head; determined mountaineers with their long 
rifles and undaunted spirits; grizzled Indian fighters and 
younger men who could be as certainly depended upon; 
earlier-day Eough Riders who Iwd long before discarded 
such feelings as fear. 

Crossing the Little Tennessee, after a rapid march 
they reached Estimaula, an Indian village, where they 
secured a supply of grain and meat. They burned the 
town, and camped in its immediate vicinity on Esti- 
maula river. Sentries were placed around the camp, 
for a night attack was expected; and the horses were 
tethered where they would be safest. 

The men lay upon their arms. They were tired, and 
knew they had vigilant sentries; and were gradually 
wrapped in slumber. An ominous stillness pervaded 
the camp, broken now and then by the heavy breathing 
of some sleeper, or the fretful cry of one of the Indian 
children captured at Estimaula. Presently the sentries 
heard a suspicious movement; Indians were approaching 
a few hundred yards away, in a slow, uniform manner, 
creeping through the yellow sage.. They drew nearer 
and nearer — so close, that the cocking of their guns 
was heard. Firing, the sentries retired; and the In- 



Etowah Taken. 89 

dians fired their guns also, at the same time making 
the woods ring with their war-whoo^DS. 

The camp was aroused, and there was enough con- 
fusion to allow the escape of some of the captive squaws 
and children. The Indians soon withdrew. The next 
night, Sevier took up his line of march to Etowah, an 
Indian town situated near the confluence of the Eto- 
wah and Coosa, and just across the former stream from 
the troops. By mistake the guides led the whites to 
a ferry below the ford, immediately opposite the town. 
Some of the men crossed to the farther bank, but the 
greater part pushed to the ford, intending to attack 
the town from that direction. 

The mistake of the guides proved fortunate. The 
approach of the whites was apprehended^ and the In- 
dians had made excavations in the bank commanding 
the ford, each large enough for one man to lie with 
his gun poised. But thinking from the movement of 
the horsemen down the river that the attack would 
be made there, the warriors left their excavations and 
hurried down to defend the town. When they saw 
their mistake, it was too late to regain the pits; in 
addition to this, they became greatly scattered. The 
larger portion found themselves between the river and 
the whites; but they made a stubborn resistance under 
the leadership of Kingfisher. Hugh L. White, after- 
wards prominent as a statesman, and a few others re- 
solved to kill this chief. When he fell under their 
unerring aim, the warriors gave up the fight and fled. 



90 Thk Backward Traii.. 

The village — which stood near the present town of 
Eome, Georgia — was burned. Sevier wanted to caj'ry 
the war further down to other Indian settlements, but 
it was decided to return on account of the difficulties 
to be surmounted in reaching them. 

The Etowah campaign was the last military service 
of Gen. Sevier , Although he had been the protection 
of the frontiers for nearly a score of years, fighting 
thirty-five battles and never meeting defeat, and in all 
his engagements losing but fifty-six men, this expedi- 
tion was the only one for which he received compensa- 
tion from the government. Commenting on his man- 
ner of warfare, Ramsey says that Sevier was the first 
to introduce the Indian war-whoop in his battles with 
the savages, the tories, or the British. More harmless 
than the leaden missile, it was not less efficient, and 
was always the precursor and attendant of victory. The 
prisoners at King's Mountain said, "We could stand 
your fighting, but your cursed hallooing confused us; 
we thought the mountains had regiments instead of 
companies." 

The fall of Etowah practically put an end to Indian 
outrages in East Tennessee. In the more western settle- 
ments on the Cum.berland the people still suffered 
throughout the greater part of Gov. Blount's adminis- 
tration; but through the determination of Gen. Robert- 
son, as will be seen, the Nickojack expedition was un- 
dertaken and carried out, resulting in comparative peace 
to those long-suffering settlers. 



Basis for Impeachment. 91 

When the territory came to an end and Tennessee 
became a State in 1796, Gov. Blount was elected as 
one of the senators of the United States from the new 
commonwealth. He and the other senator, William 
Cocke, were not allowed to take their seats owing to 
irregularities attending the first election laws of the 
State. They were later re-elected and repaired to Phila- 
delphia. 

While acting in his capacit} of senator, Blount was 
impeached by the House of Representatives, being 
charged with high crimes and misdemeanors supposed 
to have been committed while a senator of the United 
States. The allegations were based on a letter to James 
Carey. Referring to this letter. Gen. Robertson once 
said: '^'I never could have judged the letter to have 
been so criminal, but supposed it would have operated 
against my friend, as being a public man." In 1797 
Senator Blount wrote as follows to one of his constit- 
uents: 

Philadelphia, July 5, 1797. 
In a few days you will see published by order of 
Congress, a letter said to have been written by me to 
James Carey. It makes quite a fuss here. I hope, 
however, the people upon the Western waters will see 
nothing but good in it, for so I intended, especially 
for Tennessee. 

Whether the suggestion by Blount in the Carey 
letter justified or not the charge that he had "conspired 
to set on foot a military hostile expedition against the 



92 The Backward Trail. 

territory of his Catholic majesty in the Floridas and 
Louisiana for the purpose of wresting them from his 
Catholic majesty, and of conquering the same for Great 
Britain/' he was on July 8 expelled from his seat. He 
returned to Knoxville, where he was welcomed, though 
disgraced. The sergeant-at-arms of the United States, 
James Matthers, followed him with the intention of 
arresting and carrying him in custody to the seat of 
government. Arriving at Knoxville, he found that the 
ex-senator had friends who thought him persecuted and 
misunderstood; and that whatever the feeling in Phila- 
delphia was, the Western people retained confidence in 
the man who had been a tried and true friend in their 
service for many years. Matthers was for some days 
the guest of Blount, and was treated with politeness 
and even marked attention by the citizens of Knoxville. 
But when served with process, the ex-senator refused 
to go to Philadelphia. Matthers summoned a posse 
to his assistance — but not a person came to his aid; 
and when he started on his return to the seat of gov- 
ernment, a number of citizens went with him a few 
miles from town and politely but firmly informed him 
that Blount could never l>e taken from Tennessee as 
a prisoner. 

On January 14, 1799, judgment was pronounced by 
the Vice President that "the court is of opinion that 
the matter alleged in the plea of the defendant is suf- 
ficient in law to show that this court ought not to 
hold jurisdiction of the said impeachment, and that 



Blount Honored. 



93 



the said impeachment be dismissed.'' But before this 
announcement of the failure to sustain the prosecution, 
the people of his section had shown their confidence 
in Blount in a more substantial manner than in their 
treatment of Matthers. Blount was elected to the State 
Senate, and made speaker in 1798. 

As in the case of Andrew Johnson, prejudice may 
have had much to do in the impeachment of Blount; 
or if it was not prejudice, it may have been an over- 
zealous desire of easily-frightened statesmen to prevent 
a rupture with Spain, then considerably more powerful 
than a century later. Like Andrew Johnson, too, he 
w^as as popular with his constituency after his impeach- 
ment as before. But he did not live long to enjoy 
their renewed tokens of esteem. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE NICKOJACK EXPEDITION^ WHICH RESULTED IN 
BREAKING THE SPIRIT OF THE INDIANS. 

The selling into bondage of the favorite son of Jacob 
in the earlier history of the Hebrews seemed a mis- 
fortune to the father and youth, but it proved a blessing 
to the chosen people; and the hardships of Wallace's fic- 
titious hero, Ben Hur — fitting him to successfully carry 
out the duties to devolve upon him — are but a repeti- 
tion of a lesson as old as the ages. In April, 1788, 
Joseph Brown, a lad of sixteen years of age, was pass- 
ing with his father and others in a boat down the Ten- 
nessee river on their way to the Cumberland settle- 
ments. The boat was captured by the Indians near 
Eunning Water town, and the crew butchered with a 
few exceptions. Among the captives was the lad men- 
tioned. He was held by the Indians for several months, 
until their haunts became as well known to him as the 
neighborhood where he was reared. He was finally 
exchanged through the efi'orts of Sevier, an Indian 
squaw predicting at the time of the exchange that he 
would one day lead back an expedition for the destruc- 
tion of the Indians. This prediction proved true. 
(94) 



Ore Given Command. 95 

When Indian raids on the Cumberland people became 
so intolerable that Gen. Robertson resolved, despite 
the warnings of the territorial governor, William 
Blount, and the instructions of the general government, 
to make an attack on Nickojack, Running Water and 
other Indian towns, Brown v.as selected to discover a 
route thereto and guide the expedition, the circum- 
stance emphasizing the idea of disguised blessings once 
more. Troops were raised m Kentucky through the 
efforts of Sampson Williams, of the Cumberland settle- 
ments; Col. Ford levied others between Nashville and 
Clarksville on the east side of Cumberland river; Col. 
Montgomery joined the force -with a company from 
Clarksville; while Gen. Robertson raised volunteers in 
and around Nashville. Maj. Ore, who had been ordered 
with a command of moimted men to protect Mero Dis- 
trict, arrived at Nashville while the expedition was be- 
ing projected, and on September 6, 1794, was given 
command by Gen. Robertson in an expUcit and yet in- 
geniously-worded order. 

On the next day the army marched to the Black 
Fox's camp where Murfreesboro now stands; next day 
it crossed Duck river near the stone fort at Manchester; 
then crossing Elk river and Cumberland Mountain it 
reached the Tennessee about three miles below the 
mouth of Sequatchee. An encampment was made there 
as it was night when they arrived. Before dawn of the 
following day the army was busily engaged crossing 
the river, and began a cautious march up the mountain 



96 The Backward Trail. 

between the point of which and the river Brown and 
Kichard Finnelson, the guides, said the town of Nicko- 
jack lay. The troops under Ore numbered over five 
hundred, according to Ore's official report, and they 
reached the town on September 13. 

Nickojack was inhabited by two or three hundred 
Indians. They consisted mainly of bandits. Of the 
topographical features of Nickojack and Kunning 
Water a historian remarks: "The situation of these 
towns caught a certain air of picturesque gandeur from 
the natural scenery around them. The two most im- 
portant were Nickojack and Running Water. 'They 
were situated on a precipice which was all but impreg- 
nable. A deep, broad, dangerous river ran below. Be- 
yond were the dense forests, penetrated only by the 
paths which successive generations of wild beasts had 
made, and the tall, inaccessible peaks of the Cumber- 
land Mountains, down whose dark and precipitous 
ravines it was supposed no horse could ever descend. 
The approach in the rear was impossible to all but 
friends. The eagle in his eerie, the panther in his lair, 
could not be safer.'' 

The spot was indeed an ideal one for the fierce 
Chickamaugas and their few white associates. It was 
a little world to itself. After a descent upon the set- 
tlements, the warriors could return there, bid anxiety 
depart, and enjoy the fruits of their plunderings; there 
the women might watch their offspring gamboling in 
the sunshine without fear of the intrusion of an enemv. 



NiCKOJACK VILI.AGK. 97 

For years they had enjoyed immunity. In the spring 
the birds trilled their poems of peace; in the summer 
the woods were green and the waters clear, and cloud- 
shadows passing over the mountains were not an augury 
even to those superstitious beings of coming disasters; 
when autumn came with its haze, and red, gold and 
green tints, and that wonderful pathos in the air for 
things passing away, did not nature still hold eternal 
guard and assure them that there were none to molest 
or make afraid? 

But the sense of perfect safety is not infrequently 
but a moment's distance from doom. Maj. Ore's troops 
were divided into two wings — the main body under Col. 
Whitley was to make a detour and attack K'ickojack 
above, while the other wing, under Montgomery, was 
to attack below. So great was the Indians' feeling of 
security that no sentries were posted at the approaches 
to the town, and the whites were upon them and shoot- 
ing them down before they knew the foe was within 
a hundred miles of those fastnesses. Two houses were 
seen in the cornfields about two hundred and fifty feet 
from the village. To prevent their discovery by the" 
Indians in time to make a defense, the troops rushed 
in full speed in the direction of Nickojack. They 
passed the cabins, which were found to be vacant, and 
hastened to the landing on the river where the fleeing 
savages were endeavoring to escape in their canoes. 
Besides three or four boat loads in the river, there were 
twenty-five or thirty warriors standing on the bank. 



98 The Backward Traii.. 

William Pillow, who was in the lead of the whites, fired 
at them, and his shot was followed by a destructive 
volley from Col. Montgomery's force, which left hardly 
an Indian alive. A few, however, escaped by covering 
themselves with the plunder in the canoes or by diving. 
Col. Whitley, who was above the town, sent Brown back 
with a detachment of about twenty men to intercept 
those Indians who might try to escape from the mouth 
of the creek which emptied into the river below. Then 
Whitley and his command rushed down. The Indians 
were helplessly hemmed, and their destruction was 
thorough. 

Eunning Water was four miles higher up the river. 
After destroying Xickojack, the troops marched to that 
place. Its inhabitants had fled, and the whites, after 
razing the village, which was larger than Nickojack, 
began their homeward march. The other villages were 
unimportant, and Maj. Ore decided to leave them un- 
molested. Maj. Ore's report to Gov. Blount is interest- 
ing, and is therefore given here: 

KxoxviLLE, September 24, 1794. 
Sir: On the seventh instant, by order of Gen. 
Robertson, of Mero District, I marched from Nashville 
with five hundred and fifty mounted infantry under 
my command, and pursued the trace of the Indians 
who had committed the latest murders in the District 
of Mero, and of the party that captured Peter Turney's 
negro woman to the Tennessee. I crossed it on the 
night of the twelfth, about four miles below Nickojack, 
and in the morning of the thirteenth, destroyed Nicko- 



Major Ore's Report. 99 

jack and Running AVater, tovv'ns of the Cherokees. 
The first being entirely surrounded and attacked by 
surprise^ the shuighter was great, but cannot be accu- 
rately reported, as many were killed in the Tennessee. 
Nineteen women and children were made prisoners at 
this town. The Running Water town being only four 
miles above Mckojack, the news of the attack upon the 
latter reached the former before the troops under my 
command, and a resistance was made to save it at a 
place called the Narrows; but, after the exchange of a 
few rounds, the Indians posted at that place gave way, 
and the town was burnt without further opposition, 
with all the effects found therein, and the troops under 
my command recrossed the Tennessee the same day. 
From the best judgment that could be formed, the 
number of Indians killed at the towns must have been 
upwards of fifty, and the loss sustained by the troops 
under my command, was one lieutenant and two 
privates wounded. 

Running Water was counted the largest and among 
the most hostile towns of the Cherokees. Nicko- 
jack was not less hostile, but inferior in point of num- 
bers. At Nickojack were found two fresh scalps which 
had lately been taken at Cumberland, and several that 
were old were hanging in the houses of the warriors, 
as trophies of war; a quantity of ammunition, powder 
and lead, lately arrived there from the Spanish govern- 
ment, and a commission for the Breath, the head man 
of the town, who was killed, and sundry horses and 
other articles of property, were found both at Mckojack 
and Running Water, which were known by one or 
other of the militia to have belonged to different people 
killed by the Indians in the course of the last t\velve 
months. 



loo The Backward Trail. 

The prisoners taken^ among whom was the wife and 
child of Richard i'innelson, my pilot, informed me 
that, on the fourth instant, sixty Creeks and Lower 
Cherokees passed the Tennessee for war against the 
frontiers. They also informed me that two nights be- 
fore the destruction of Running Water a scalp dance 
had been held in it over the scalps lately taken from 
Cumberland, at which were present John Watts, the 
Bloody Fellow and the other chiefs of the lower towns, 
and at which they determined to continue the war, in 
conjunction with the Creeks, with more activity than 
heretofore against the frontiers of the United States, 
and to erect block-houses at each of the lower towns 
for their defense, as advised by the Spanish govern- 
ment. The prisoners also informed me that a scalp- 
dance was to be held in two nights at Redheaded Will's 
town, a new town al)Out thirty miles lower down the 
Tennessee. 

The troops under iny cou^iinand generally behaved 
well. 

I have the honor to be your excellency's most obedi- 
ent, humble servant. 

James Ore. 
Gov. Blount. 

Joseph Brown, the guide, liad a talk with an Indian 
at Tellico block-house after the expedition, in which 
he was informed that the loss of the enemy at the 
destruction of Mckojack was seventy instead of fifty. 

Thoughtful and fair people who understand the 
situation in Mero District at that time, will agree that 
the invasion of the Indian country was necessary for 
the peace and safety of the people, and that the gov- 



Result of the Expedition. loi 

ernment's policy of submission to Indian outrages was 
criminally erroneous. But notwithstanding this, Gen. 
Robertson was censured by the government and rebuked 
by Gov. Blount. The fact that he knew that he was 
justified by his own people, who were in a position 
to know the state of affairs in- the district, doubtless 
caused him to lose little sleep over what Ifaywood 
expresses as governmental snarling. 

Comparative freedom from Indian annoyances was 
the result of the Mckojack expedition. 

The people of Mero District were occasionally har- 
assed by murders and thefts, and kept scouts among 
the settlements until the Creek wars; but the fears and 
real dangers of former days were forever gone. The 
approach of the second war with England somewhat 
stimulated the Indians' hopes of resisting the broad- 
ening sway of the Americans, but their efforts did not 
seriously disturb the Tennessee settlements. 

From the first settlement at Watauga in 1768 to the 
admission of Tennessee into the Union, the whites had 
withstood a savage horde estimated at something like 
one hundred and fifty thousand, of whom twenty thou- 
sand were warriors — immediate neighbors of the set- 
tlers; while beyond the Mississippi was an unknown 
myriad in friendly alliance with the other savages. 
Their perseverance and courage prevailed in the end, 
however. 



CHAPTER X. 

MERE GLIMPSES OE CERTAIN OTHER CHARACTERS FIGUR- 
ING IN THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS. 

A decidedly prominent and daring pioneer of the 
eastern section in its incipient settlement was James 
Hubbard^ who lived at Watauga. His parents had been 
murdered when he was a boy, and the passion of his 
life appeared to be to avenge their massacre. He pos- 
sessed absolute coolness in danger, as well as the cun- 
ning of the craftiest savage. It is said that he could 
practice, and had practiced for years, and successfully, 
the strategies of single-handed warfare, and excelled 
the boldest and shrewdest of the race he hatea. The 
Indians knew him and feared him more than any man 
of his time, not excepting perhaps Simon Kenton and 
Daniel Boone. While he possessed their courage and 
skill, he was lacking in pity, for his hatred of the 
Indians could not be softened by any appeal to his 
conscience. 

The Indians for some time before the establishment 
of the State of Franklin had been subjecting the East 
Tennessee settlements to their customary annoyances, 
and the lethargic attitude of North Carolina toward 
Indian atrocities on the frontier was one thing which 
(102) 



Inveterate Foes. 103 

suggested to the pioneers the idea of a separate govern- 
ment — one wliich would insure greater protection. No 
doubt the Indians had some cause for provocation. It 
was alleged by them, and believed by the governor of 
North Carolina, that the killing of an Indian chief by 
Hubbard was one motive for Indian hostility. The 
facts of the chiefs death are as follows: He was known 
as Butler by the whites, as Untoola by the Indians. 
In a fight with Hubbard once he had been disarmed 
and sent back to his tribe without weapons, and con- 
sequently disgraced. The chief smarted under this dis- 
grace, and naturally cherished the hope of revenge. 
Sometime after this occurrence, and while a sort of 
peace was patched up between the Cherokees of the 
upper towns and the whites, corn became scarce among 
the latter. They sent among the Indians for supplies, 
and Hubbard, going on one of these missions despite 
the aversion with which the savages regarded him, 
selected the village where Butler had been a chief. 
Perhaps he was actuated by a desire to aggravate his 
already mortified and discomfited enemy. 

Butler learned of Hubbard's approach, and going out 
with a friend to meet him, asked why he had come 
there. This was said with an air of insult, but Hub- 
bard showed an empty corn sack, and explained that 
he had come to purchase corn. He then offered the 
two Indians a drink of whiskey. The disgraced chief 
made no reply, but stood looking with hate on his 
ancient enemy. Not the least disturbed, but apparently 



I04 The Backward Trail. 

desirous of peace, Hubbard leaued his gun against a 
tree and returned the gaze of the Indian; but when he 
noticed Butler ride toward him, with the intention of 
getting between him and his gun, he laid his hand 
upon the muzzle. The Indian struck at him, and 
missed;, then raising his gun, fired. Dodging his head 
adroitly, he escaped, though the bullet cut a scar in 
liis temple. The two Indians turned and tried to escape, 
but had not gotten more than eighty yards off when 
Hubbard shot Butler from his horse. The latter was not 
killed by the shot, and Hubbard picked him up and 
leaned him against a tree. This would doubtless have 
been the end of the difficulty, but Butler taunted him 
until the now enraged white broke his skull with his 
rifle barrel. AYith his usual good fortune, Hubbard 
escaped. 

Another tragedy in which he figured was character- 
ized by his dominant heartlessness where the Indians 
were concerned. In the early months of 1788 the 
Cherokees began to yearn for war. Their first hostile 
act of the year was a massacre which causes the 
blood to curdle at its mention. A family of the name 
of Kirk lived on the southwest side of Little river, 
twelve miles south of the present city of Knoxvillo. 
In May, the head of the family and a son were called 
away from home. During their absence an Indian, 
familiarly known as Slim Tom, who had been appar- 
ently a friend of the Kirks, came to the house and 
requested some provisions. The hospitable family 



Thk Kirks Avknged. 105 

readily supplied him. While there, he took especial 
cognizance of the surroundings, and seeing that the 
whites were not prepared for a defense, withdrew to the 
woods. Soon afterwards he returned with a party of 
his race, and massacred the eleven members of the 
family, leaving them dead in the yard. 

It was a fearful instance of ingratitude, but it en- 
tailed a retaliation that was as horrifying. 

When Kirk returned to his home, he was greeted 
with the sight of his family brutally murdered, lying 
with mutilated forms imder the blue skies of his adopt- 
ed land. He gave the alarm, and the militia gathered 
under John Sevier to the number of several hundred, 
and several Indian towns were burned and a great num- 
ber of savages killed. But during the raid, the murder 
of the Kirk family was shockingly avenged in a way 
which, notwithstanding the provocation, cannot be con- 
doned. A friendly Indian, Abraham, had refused to go 
to war with his people. In this resolution he met the 
indorsement of his son. The two lived on the north 
side of the Tennessee, and when the troops of Sevier 
arrived on the south side, Hubbard sent for Abraham 
and his son to come over. They came, doubtless be- 
lieving that their friendship Vv'ould be met with the 
gratitude it merited. Hubbard then, while Sevier was 
absent and not suspecting that a tragedy was to be 
enacted, ordered them to return and bring The Tassel 
and another Indian that he might have a talk with 
them. Some half a dozen Indians were brouofht to 



io6 Thk Backward Traii,. 

the troojDS in this way, and were confined in a liouse 
contiguous. 

Hubbard, accompanied by a son of tlie settler. Kirk, 
whose family had been butchered on Little Kiver, was 
allowed to go into the room where the Indians were 
confined, the troops, it is averred, being aware of the 
cause for the visit. Kirk deliberately walked up to 
one of the prisoners, and sunk his tomahawk into his 
skull, the Indian falling dead at his feet. 

The other Indians by this time comprehending the 
situation, realized what would be their fate, but they 
did not murmur. Their demeanor should have 
disarmed the two men's hatred and led them to 
spare the guiltless. The scene which occurred in the 
Eoman senate of old, when the savage invaders entered 
it, was in a measure re-enacted, though the victims in 
this instance showed the dignity and fortitude of the 
representatives of civilization in the first. Casting their 
glance on the ground, the Indians without a murmur 
awaited death. Kirk struck each on the upper part of 
the head with his tomahawk, killing all before he stop- 
ped. 

"Sevier, returning, saw the tragical effects of this rash 
act,'' says Haywood, "and, on remonstrating against it, 
was answered by Kirk who was supported by some of 
the troops, that if he had suffered from the murderous 
hands of the Indians, as he (Kirk) had, he (Sevier) 
would have acted in the same way. Sevier, unable to 



SpKnckr Thk Giant. 107 

punish him, was obliged to overlook the flagitious deed 
and acquiesce in the reply/' 

There can be no doubt about Hubbard instigating 
this affair. Strange to relate, despite his merciless 
enmity toward the Indians, he was not a terror to his 
own people, but was considered a valuable man in the 
needs of frontier life. 

Eeference is made in another chapter to Thomas 
Sharpe Spencer, the giant, who was the earliest settler 
of Middle Tennessee. Writers of the State's annals 
agree in pronouncing him one of the bravest of men, 
an ideal frontiersman. When he came to the section 
which he afterwards made his home, he was accom- 
panied by other hunters, but they soon left. He spent 
the winter of 1779 and 1780 alone in the wilderness, 
taking up his abode in a hollow tree standing near 
the present site of Castalian Springs, Sumner County. 
The trunk of this tree was still visible just above 
ground in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, 
measuring twelve feet in circumference. 

Miles Darden, a Tennessean, is said to have been the 
largest man on record, weighing a few years before his 
death over a thousand pounds. Probably Spencer did 
not approach him in size and weight, but he was of 
immense stature. 

Stories are told of his prodigious strength that would 
astonish the public of to-day, familiar as it is with 
professional strong men. Amongst his courageous 



io8 The Backward TuAit. 

deeds is that of saving the hfe of Mrs. Bledsoe, wife 
of the Indian fighter and surveyor, Anthony Bledsoe. 
They were going through the country horseback, when 
they were fired upon by the Indians. Mrs. Bledsoe 
was "thrown from her horse, and was in jeopardy of her 
life when Spencer took her up while the Indians' bul- 
lets were whistling around them, and reached a place 
of safety with her. 

Spencer was finally slain by the savages on what is 
now Spencer^s Hill, between Carthage and Crab Orch- 
ard, in 1794. He seemed to have no sense of fear of 
the Indians, often roaming and hunting alone in the 
forest for ten or twelve days at a time during the worst 
seasons of savage warfare. 

Music may be said to be as essential to the enjoy- 
ment of mankind as sugar in some form is necessary to 
the system; and next to vocal music, that of the violin 
has been most highly appreciated by infant and primi- 
tive communities. In the backwoods to-day, fiddlers 
are more common than the performers on any other 
instrument. This was the case on the Tennessee fron- 
tier. A celebrated fiddler of early times has been given 
to posterity by Putnam. He was James Gamble. 
Paganini had a world-wide reputation as a violinist, and 
audiences went into ecstasies over his strains. Gam- 
ble's clientele was smaller; but as he went his way, en- 
joying life as Tennyson in one of his lyrics desired to 
do, "and fiddled in the timber," his performances were 



A Backwoods Fiddler. 109 

sufficient for the humble pioneers. He was the violin- 
ist of the Cumberland settlements, making his home 
at Bledsoe's station. He was a good-natured, happy 
man, making no enemies, and his wife appeared to 
enjoy his reputation notwithstanding the fact that he 
was so much wedded to his fiddle. ''When the great re- 
vival came," says Putnam in his quaint tribute, "the 
dancing, involuntary and without ease or grace, con- 
tinued; but instrumental music was condemned as un- 
suitable, and, indeed, sinful to be practiced or heard by 
professors of religion, and several of the fiddlers of 
Mero laid their instruments on the shelves or among old 
trumpery, and a few broke them in pieces. James 
Gamble (we hope) was also a Christian, a devotee to 
his science of sweet sounds upon horse-hair and cat^ 
gut, but never a bigot. He read his Bible, and fiddled; 
he prayed, and he fiddled; asked a silent blessing on his 
meals, gave thanks, and fiddled; went' to meeting, sang 
the songs of Zion, joined in all devotional services, went 
home, and fiddled. He sometimes fiddled in bed, but 
always fiddled when he got up. We doubt not he 
indulged in fiddling to excess, but if all men were as 
innocent of harm and contributed as much to the pleas- 
ure of their fellows as he, the world would be better 
than it is." 

By dispensing his music, did not this backwoodsman 
scatter sunshine where it was most needed? Perhaps 
even his career impresses the fact that it is better to 



no The Backward Traii.. 

succeed in a humble sphere, doing well that of which 
we are capable, than to reflect little honor in a more 
important station. 

Some men have given their talents and best efforts 
to win notoriety, and failed, or are only kept in remem- 
brance by a song or a smart saying. Others without 
aspiration or effort or merit have had their memories 
strangely enough kept green, in a local sense, at least. 
Of the latter class was David Hood. He lived among 
the Nashborough people, and was a cooper; a simple, 
easy-going, garrulous person, given to garbling Scrip- 
ture, and a tireless if tiresome punster. 

There is something which appeals to our sense of the 
ludicrous in contemplating the occurrence which gave 
him his claim to recollection notwithstanding the hor- 
rible circumstances surrounding it. In the winter of 
1782 he was returning from one of the nearby stations 
to Nashborough, when he was chased by a number of 
Indians, who fired as they pursued. Thinking that there 
was little chance to save his life in any event, he decided 
to make them believe he had been killed by one of their 
shots, and so fell on his face. In the language of the 
day, ^^possuming*' was the word for feigning. When 
the Indians reached him one of them twisted his fingers 
in his hair, and scalped him. They then proceeded 
toward the fort he had tried to reach. When they had 
passed out of sight, their victim, bleeding but thankful 
that matters were no worse, got up and also started in 



David Hood's Cask. m 

the direction of Xashborough. Mounting the ridge 
above the sulphur spring, he was dismayed to see that 
the Indians had again discovered him. He turned to 
run,- wliile the enemy fired shot after shot at him. One 
bullet struck him in the breast, but did not at once dis- 
able him. Bleeding profusely from his wound, he 
finally fell exhausted and unconscious in the snow. 
The Indians, after having inflicted what they consid- 
ered mortal wounds, left him where he had fallen on a 
brush heap in the snow. 

When found. Hood was taken to the fort and placed 
in an out-house as a dead man; but next morning some 
of the females, suggesting that life might not be quite 
extinct, expressed a desire to look at him. They 
thought they could perceive signs of life, and accord- 
ingly had him removed to better quarters. His wounds 
were dressed and cordials administered, and it was not 
long before his condition was encouraging. His con- 
valescence was remarkably fast and it was but a few 
days until his native humor asserted itself in a pun as 
to having so completely ^^hoodwinked the Indians!" 

Of the many locally-noted settlers, hunters and In- 
dian fighters of the Cumberland country but one or two 
others will be mentioned. A volume might easily be 
devoted to the daring exploits of Anthony Bledsoe, 
John Eains, Spencer and Jonathan Jennings, Samson 
Williams, Casper Mansker and Abe Castleman. Castle- 
man was an intimate friend of James Robertson, and 



c: 



112 The Backward Traii,. 

had remained with liim through all the vicissitudes of 
the new settlement. He had a perfectly trained ear. 
He could easily distinguish the report of the guns of 
the whites from that of the Indians. If a gun were 
Hred in his hearing, he could even say whether it was 
Mansker's "Xancy" or the rifle of some other settler. 
When he went out to search for signs of Indians, the 
settlers could rely on his report, no matter how dijn 
the trail. Mohammed could w^alk across a sand-bar 
and leave no track; Castleman could pass through the 
trackless woods as noiselessly as a cat creeping upon 
its prey. He could distinguish between the hoot of 
the owl and the best imitation. If the least uncertain, 
he was cautious enough to take no risks, though he 
never neglected an opportunity to satisfy himself, so 
great was his passion for adventure, so little did he 
regard danger. He gave one instance where he was not 
quite satisfied with his judgment. "It was in the dusk 
of the evening/' said he. "The imitation of the large 
bird of night was very perfect, yet I was suspicious. 
The woo-woo call and the woo-woo answer were not 
well-timed and toned, and the babel-chatter was a fail- 
ure; and more than this, I am sure they are on the 
ground, and that won't begin to do. Til see you,' says 
I to myself, and as I approached, I saw something of 
the height of a stump standing between a forked tree 
which divided near the ground. Well, I know there 
can be no stump there; I put ^Betsy' to my face — 
that stump was once a live Indian, and he lay at the 



Killed Their Mkn. 113 

roots of those forked chestnuts. And if he was ever 
buried, it was not far off." 

Among the tragedies enacted ahnost daily in 1793, 
his immediate relatives did not escape butchery. To 
retaliate, in August of that year he raised a number 
of volunteers, resolving to make a little incursion. Ten 
of his comrades turned back after reaching the Ten- 
nessee in pursuit of Indians, as Gen. Eobertson pro- 
hibited scouting parties from crossing it. Castleman 
with only five others, all dressed and painted as In- 
dians, crossed the river below Nickojack, the celebrated 
Indian town, and continued their still-hunt. They fol- 
lowed the trace leading to AA'ill's Town, several miles 
below. Traveling ten or twelve miles, they discovered 
an Indian camp. It was composed of forty or fifty 
Creeks — a war party on the way to plunder the settle- 
ments. The Indians were eating, and as Castleman's 
men were disguised, mistook them for friends. Castle- 
man was called the "Fool Warrior" by all the Indians 
who knew of his recklessness, and his temerity in this 
instance proved that the sobriquet was somewhat ap- 
plicable. The whites were more than a hundred miles 
from home, in strange woods, and greatly out-num- 
bered. 

The party approached the Indians; then pausing 
when within a few paces of the camp, raised their guns 
and fired. Castleman killed two, and each of the others 
one. Naturally, the intrepedity of the act, and the 
falling of seven of their men so suddenly, confounded 



114 T-an Backward Traii,. 

the savages; and before they could recover, the whites 
had retreated and made good their escape into the thick 
undergrowth. They arrived safely at the station six 
days afterwards. 

On another occasion, Castleman was sent out to 
search for traces of Indians, as it was rumored that 
they had threatened another invasion. He took up his 
route, and going half-bent, his eyes on the alert for 
traces of the enemy, he reached the war trace perhaps 
sixty miles from Nashville. This was in 1792. At 
that distance he discovered traces of a large body of 
the savages, and hastened home to warn the settlers. 
The latter fled at once to the stations for protection. 
In addition to what he had seen on the war trace, he 
discovered that the camp of Black Fox, Avhich had for 
some time been on the site of Murfreesboro, was de- 
serted, and construed this to be an indication of danger. 

When Castleman returned, to be doubly sure four 
other scouts — Clayton, Gee, Eains and Kennedy — were 
sent out to spy. The first two never returned, having 
been killed, though it was thought that they had gone 
only farther away than Rains and Kennedy. The latter 
came in by Buchanan's station, reporting there that 
there were no Indian signs to be found. The people 
upon this information felt relieved and began return- 
ing to their homes. 

Buchanan's station was defended by only about fifteen 
gun-men. Guards had been put out, as there was still 
some uneasiness. At midnight on September 30 — only 



Buchanan's Station. 115 

ci lew hours after the report of iiains and Keuuedy — 
there was an alarm given that the Indians were about 
to attack the fort, their approach being suspected by 
the running of frightened cattle. So stealthily had 
they approached, that they were not discovered until 
within ten paces of the palisades I John McKory, the 
sentry, fired at them, when the Indians began pouring 
volley after volley into the log walls. Others attempted 
to set fire to the buildings. One of them climbed to 
the roof with a torch, but v.^as shot. Falling to the 
ground, he continued his efforts to fire the station, when 
another shot killed him. 

It was seen that the attacking party was unusually 
large from the reports of their guns, and ver}' few per- 
sons in the station thought escape from massacre pos- 
sible. After an hour or so, the Indians retired. It 
was afterwards learned thaht there were seven hundred 
warriors present, under the leadership of John Watts 
— four or five hundred Creeks, two hundred Cherokees, 
and thirty or forty Shawnees. Xext morning it was 
found that three Indians iiad been killed, and later, 
that seven others had been wounded — John Watts, shot 
in both thighs, White-Man Killer, Dragging Canoe's 
brother. Owl's son, a young buck from Lookout Moun- 
tain and two others from Eunning Water and the Creek 
nation. Out on the ground near the fort were picked up 
a number of pipes, swords, hatchets, and budgets of 
Indian articles, as well as a handkerchief and moccasin 
belonging to Gee and Clayton, which were evidence 



ii6 Thk Backward Traii,. 

that those scouts had been killed and their belono^in^s 
taken. 

The savages left the community without making an- 
other attack. Some years later the Indians explained 
that they were surprised at the resistance made, and 
supposed that their attack was expected and that sol- 
diers were still organized ready to defend the settle- 
ments. 

It is presumed that Castleman's judgment was gen- 
erally received as good after this affair. 

Knoxville is one of the most flourishing cities of 
Tennessee, and has long been interesting from the 
standpoint of history. Situated on the Tennessee river, 
covering what were once wooded hills and valleys that 
made ideal hiding-places for savage people, and con- 
taining half a hundred bridges, it is also one of the most 
picturesque places in ximerica. In its limits, on one 
of the neglected streets, stands the ancient capitol of 
the State; in the beautiful court-house park, and facing 
Gay street, is the monument to John Sevier, glimmer- 
iug in the first rays of the rising sun and bathed in 
its wine-like glow in the evening; near the comer of 
two streets that are now rarely disturbed by the din 
of the business portion of town, are the graves of 
William Blount and his wife; and in the suburbs, on 
a hill-slope whose peace is intensified in summer by 
the tinkling of cow bells aud made more solemn in 
winter by the dirgeful winds, may be seen the plain 



Knoxvillk Founded. 117 

two-room cottage which was the early home of Amer- 
icas most celebrated female novelist, Frances Hodgson 
Burnett. The founder of this city was James White. 
He was a soldier of the revolutionary war, a member 
of the House of Representatives of the territory, and 
speaker of the senate after the territory became a State. 
This was about the extent of his public service. In 
1T92 White's small but pi-Dsperous settlement invited 
the location of the seat of the Territorial government, 
and he laid off the town in sixty-four lots and named 
the place for Major-General Henry Knox, Secretary of 
AVar under Washington. Governor Blount's first abode 
there after his appointment was in a log cabin situated 
on a knoll between the present university and the river. 
As it was the seat of government, and considered gen- 
erally well guarded, the Indians did not often venture 
to attack Knoxville, though their depredations were 
carried on near by for some years after it was founded. 
But in 1793 a body of a thousand Cherokees and 
Creeks decided to attack and plunder the town. While 
the attack was not made, owing to the fact that the 
principal chiefs, John Watts and Double Head, learned 
that their plans were probably suspected by the citi- 
zens, and anticipating a strong defense, the Knox- 
villians conceived one of the most desperate schemes 
to prevent the fall of the place. They numbered only 
about forty fighting men, among them being White. 
They decided to repair to a point out from the fort, 
where the Indians would probably appear; wait until 



ii8 l^HE Backward Trail. 

the enemy were in gunshot range, then fire with as 
careful precision as possible, and iiee to the station to 
make a final stand. The Indians, having marched in 
the direction of Clinch river after massacreing the in- 
mates of Cavet's station and giving over the idea of 
making an assault on Ivnoxville, the whites were not 
allowed an opportunity to make a practical test of their 
heroism; but their determination Avas a splendid ex- 
ample of the courage of the frontiersmen, the eulogy 
of which does not become stale and unprofitable no 
matter how often indulged in. 

Andrew Jackson, though he afterwards became one 
of the most conspicuous characters in American his- 
tory, did not come prominently into notice until after 
the most tr}dng days of the pioneers. He had been 
appointed public prosecutor for the Western District 
of Xorth Carolina, and arrived in IN'ashville in 1788. 
During the first seven years following his arrival, he 
traveled from Xashville to Jonesborough — a distance 
of two hundred and eighty miles — twenty-two times 
in the discharge of his official duties. In 1791 oc- 
curred the romance with which his name is connected 
whenever it is mentioned — his marriage to Mrs. Eachel 
Eobards. She was a daughter of Col. John Donelson, 
one of the earliest settlers of the Cumberland region, 
and was first married to Lewis Robards. of Kentucky. 
This union proved unhappy, and Eobards, in the win- 
ter of 1790-91, applied to the Legislature of Virginia 



Andrew Jackson. 119 

for a divorce. On the news reaching Nashville that 
the divorce had been granted, Mrs. Kobards and Jack- 
son were married at Natchez. It was afterwards 
learned, however, that the couple had not been di- 
vorced until some months later, and then by judicial 
action in Kentucky. Jackson and the lady were re- 
married. While the slowness with which news was 
passed from settlement to settlement in those days, 
not to mention the uncertainty of its transmission, thus 
placed Jackson and liis wdf e in an awkward position, the 
mistake was sensibly condoned by the public. But 
Jackson had made enemies, political and private, and 
they harped on the unfortunate circumstance to injure 
him. There are few instances on record of a more de- 
voted love of woman than that of Jackson for his wife, 
and the fact tends to soften the judgment of those who 
have no admiration for the austere man. But his love 
embittered at the time it blese^ed his hfe, the taunts of 
his enemies involving him in duels and rancorous dis- 
cussions. He brooked no unkind reference to his wife, 
and his life was often risked in defense of her good 
name. While he was elected to Congress in 1796, and 
had served the country in other capacities before the 
end of the eighteenth century, it was after the times 
with which these stories have to do that his most im- 
portant distinction was achieved. 



CHAPTER XI. 

ENDURANCE AND HEROISM OF FRONTIER WOMEN, AND 
SOME INSTANCES PARTICULARIZED. 

The fact that the wives, mothers, daughters and rel- 
atives of the pioneers accompanied the latter into the 
Tennessee wilderness is enongh to cause us to regard 
them as heroines. Many of the women, however, were 
forced to face conditions which called forth physical 
2:>rowess and courage that were remarkable. Not a few 
were carried into captivity, too, and kept in a bondage 
worse than death by the tomahawk would have been. 

Mrs, William Bean occupies a unique place in local 
history. But few lines are devoted to her family, 
thougli Captain William Bean was one of the first set- 
tlers of the State, and their son, Russell, was the first 
white chikl born in Tennessee. It has been a long time 
since Bean brought his dutiful wife from Pittslyvania 
County, Virginia, and built a cabin by the Watauga; 
and, yet, when we consider the incident which left him 
for awhile desolate, a touch of the sadness which was 
his, and which lingers like an echo among the hills, is 
transferred through the vicissitudes of the years to 
aifect the sympathetic reader of to-day. 

She may have been fair enough, this Virginia mat- 
(120) 



Mrs. Wili^iam Bean. 121 

ron, to have insj^ired the poet's cadenced compliment; a 
descendant, doubtless, of English ancestors, with grace- 
ful step, and of whom it might be said, "One looked 
her happy eyes within, and heard the nightingales.'' 
Forsaking all others, she came with her husband to the 
wilderness — doubting the wisdom of the movement, 
perhaps, but duplicating in her submission to him the 
constancy of Ruth. 

When their child was born, the wilderness became 
less a wilderness. Their cabin was a rude affair, but 
the little one transfigured the surroundings. The ten- 
der greeting of their parents were not heard in the new 
home, but the prattle of the baby was sweet; and no 
music the husband ever heard could compare with the 
mother's voice as she sang it to sleep. Seven years 
went by. Other families came and found homes in the 
neighberhood, until somewhat of the old social pleas- 
ures of the communities they had forsaken were se- 
cured. A fort had been built, and the cabins and fields 
were more numerous and extended. The pigs rum- 
maging among the leaves for mast, the cows lowing at 
the lot bars, the cackle of the chickens out in the fields, 
and the song of the laborer following his rude plow 
through the furrows, gave the neighborhood a home- 
like appearance, and denoted thrift. But all these 
things did not escape the Indians' notice. They in- 
cited their jealousy and fear, and — instigated by the 
agents of the cause of England, for the revolution had 
commenced — they invaded the settlement in 17T6, and 



122 Thk Backward Trail. 

Mrs. Bean wae captured by them and carried into cap- 
tivity. There is no record of the husband's efforts to 
recapture her, but of course these were not lacking. 
After she was taken into captivity Mrs. Bean was con- 
demned to death. She was bound, taken to the top of 
one of the mounds, and was about to be burned, when 
N'ancy Ward, an Indian woman, liberated her and had 
her restored to her friends. 

This was only one of the many acts of Nancy Ward 
showing her friendliness to the whites, and she merits 
our gratitude. In behalf of mercy, she often felt justi- 
fied in betraying the contemplated attacks of her peo- 
ple on the settlements. She was an Indian 
prophetess, and a niece of the reigning vice-king, 
Atta^Kulla-Kulla, of the Cherokee nation. Her 
father was a British officer. She was born about 1740. 
James Robertson visited her in 1772, and described her 
as a woman "queenly and commanding,'' and her lodge 
furnished in a style of barbaric splendor. She must 
have possessed remarkable traits to have wielded au- 
tocratic influence over the Cherokees when they knew 
she was friendly to the whites. Even the king, Ocon- 
ostota, had to give w^ay to her in peace or war, and her 
sway was evidenced in the case of Mrs. Bean. 

About four years after Mrs. Bean's release, another 
female was captured, this time from the section of the 
Cumberland country called Neelly's Bend. This was 
a daughter of Captain Neelly. He was one of the earl- 
iest settlers there, and as Indians had not for some time 



Miss Neelly's Capture. 123 

been seen in the neighborhood, he resolved to camp 
in the bend and experiment in making salt. He was 
assisted by several of the whites of Mansker's, not far 
from the station, and had one of his daughters to ac- 
company him to perform the duties of cooking for the 
men who were cutting wood, filling the kettle with sul- 
phur water, and keeping up fires, Xeelly hunted buf- 
falo and deer to feed the hands. One day, being much 
fatigued after a long hunt, he returned to the camp, 
threw down his deer, and lay down to rest. His daugh- 
ter skinned one of the venison hams and prepared it 
for supper. The dogs had gone with the laborers, and 
Xeelly was soon asleep. Passing in and out of the tent, 
unconscious of danger, she was startled to hear the 
firing of guns near by. Her father raised himself half 
up, then fell back dead. Indians entered the camp, 
and after seizing her father's gun and powder horn, 
took her captive. The murderers apparently thought 
they would be pursued, and did not tarry at the camp 
any longer than it took them to gather the few articles 
they deemed of use. An Indian held her by either arm 
and compelled her to run. They traveled all night, and 
the girl was finally carried to the Creek Nation. It is 
pleasant to transcribe the assurance of Putnam that 
*^^a.fter several years' captivity she was released — ex- 
changed, married reputably in Kentucky, and made a 
good and exemplary wife and Christian mother." 

Sometime before 1795 the home of Colonel Tils- 
worth, also of the Cumberland settlements, was at- 



124 Thej Backward Traii.. 

tacked in his absence, and all of Ms family killed except 
his daughter. In the summer of 1795 he heard that 
the Creeks who had taken his daughter captive were 
desirous of exchanging prisoners; and receiving a pass- 
port went in search of her. The information received 
from him on his return gave an idea of how captives 
were treated. 

His daughter was not carried at once to the nation, 
but the savages retained her in the woods at their camp 
on the Tennessee river for months, finally ca^'rying her 
into the nation. The Spa.nish agent there had offered 
her captors four hundred dollars for her, desiring to 
send her to school at New Orleans. At the camp on the 
Tennessee she was compelled to cut wood, make fires, 
and bring water; and upon her arrival in the nation she 
pounded corn and made meal, and was whipped and in 
other respects treated as a slave. 

These are only a few recorded cases out of many. 
Haywood occasionally refers to this state of affairs. One 
of his rambling paragraphs is that in 1793 "many of 
our people were in slavery with the Creek Indians, and 
were treated by them in all respects as slaves." In the 
Cayelegies, Mrs. Williams and child; Alice Thompson, 
of Nashville; Mrs. Caffrey and child, of Nashville. In 
the Hog villages, Mr. Brown, of the district of Mero; in 
the Clewatly town. Miss Scarlet; in the White Grounds, 
Miss Wilson, of the district of Mero, and a boy and girl; 
in the Colummies, a boy of five years of age; a.t the Big 
Talassee, a boy eight or ten years of age, and a girl 



Feminine Heroism. 125 

seven or eight years of age; in the Pocontala-ha&se, a 
boy twelve or thirteen years of age; in the Oakfuskee, 
a lad fifteen years of age; in the Red Ground, a man 
called John; in Casauders, a boy whose age and name 
were not known; in Lesley Town, a young woman who 
was repeatedly threatened with death for refusing to 
look with favor on Lesley's son; and in some other town 
were Mrs. Crocket and her son. The list of 
women and children taken into captivity from 
the earliest settlement to 1800 would number hun- 
dreds. The fate of the captives was sad indeed; women 
were forced often to become the wives of the savages 
who had slain their relatives; brothers and sisters were 
separated until they lost all knowledge of each other. 
Some were exchanged after months or years, while 
others never saw their friends again. It mav be well 
enough fur our peace of mind that we know so little 
of the captives and their lives, of their heartaches and 
physical sufferings. 

Of scores of instances of the heroism of the women 
of the settlements, only a few have been preserved. 
The case of Mrs. Buchanan, when seven hundred sav- 
ages attacked Buchanans station, near Nashville, in 
1792, is a notable one. On that occasion, when there 
were only fifteen men to defend the station, she fired 
repeatedly at the enemy, and had other women to 
mould bullets or make a display of men's hats to de- 
ceive the Indians as to the number of men present. 
She afterwards said she had killed buffalo and deer, 



126 The Backward Traii.. 

and if her aim had been as true as she endeavored to 
make it, some Indian must have suffered from the gun 
in her liand at the time of the attack. 

Houston's station was erected in East Tennessee, 
about six miles from the Utile town of Maryville, and 
was occupied by the families of Houston, McConnell, 
McEwen, Sloane and Henry. In 1785 it was attacked 
by a j^arty of Indians one hundred strong. They had 
been robbing and murdering, and were elated over 
their success. They made a vigorous assault, having 
no doubt about reducing the fort. But some of the 
best riflemen on the frontiers were in this station, and 
they were greatly aided by the women. The efforts of 
Mrs.' McEwen were especially praiseworthy. As the 
gallant defenders loaded and discharged their guns 
with rapidity she melted lead and run the bullets for 
the gun-men, keeping them fully supplied. A bullet 
from without passed between the logs at one time, 
going close to her, and, striking the wall, rolled upon 
the floor at her feet. Picking it up instantly, she car- 
ried it to her husband, with the cool request, "Here is 
a ball run out of the Indians' lead; send it back to them 
as quick as possible." 

In 1787 Captain Gillespie lived in his cabin on the 
French Broad, twelve miles from Dumplin station. His 
family consisted of himself, his wife and a child. Oue 
morning he left home for Dumplin, not suspecting that 
the Indians were in the neighborhood. The day before 
he had been burning brush on a little dealing, and, as 



Mrs. Gii.i.kspie's Ruse. 127 

fortune would have it, the &moke was still rising the 
morning he left home, in plain view of the house. A 
small band of savages came b}-, and, finding Mrs. Gilles- 
pie unprotected, entered the house. They might not 
have intended committing murder; probably they 
thought only of plunder and annoying Mrs. Gillespie; 
but the settlers had learned to expect no mercy from 
the red men. 

One of the intruders — a burly, ferocious fellow — took 
out his scalping knife and drew it across his bare arm 
as if to whet it. Then, approaching the cradle where 
the infant was slumbering, he indicated with his finger 
a line around its head, as if having an intention to 
scalp it. Another Indian who had entered stood look- 
ing on, his grim features showing that he was enjoying 
the mother's agony immensely. 

For a moment she stood as though paralyzed; then 
springing to the door and looking towards the clearing, 
called out: 

^' White men, come home! Indians! Indians!" 

The warriors were disconcerted by the stratagem, 
dashed from the cabin toward the spring and disap- 
peared in the cane. Mrs. Gillespie took her babe in 
her arms, left the house and fled in the direction of 
Dumplin. She was not followed, and after going sev- 
eral miles met her husband on his return. 

On the night of May 25, 1795, George Mann, who 
lived above Knoxville, heard a noise at his stable, and 
left his house to ascertain the cause. Discovering noth- 



128 The Backward Trail. 

ing unusual, he started to return, when he was inter- 
cepted by Indians and wounded. Fleeing to a cave a 
short distance oft', he was dragged forth and killed. 

Mrs. Mann had heard the report of the guns, and 
the footfalls of the savages pursuing her husband. 
Listening intently, she soon heard the tramp of feet 
approaching and the low words of the Indians, who 
seemed to be unusually careless of the noise they were 
making, thinking, perhaps, that there were none to fear 
in the house. 

The rifle was taken from its rack, and, leveling it at 
a crevice near the door, Mrs. Mann awaited the slay- 
ers of her husband. A savage pushed open the door. 
She could see in the uncertain light that he was fol- 
lowed by others. The children, as yet, had not been 
awakened. Pulling the trigger of the gun held steadily 
in her hands, she fired, and the foremost Indian fell 
in the doorway. There was a scream from the one 
just behind, and it was evident that two had been hit 
by her unerring aim. This warm reception caused 
the Indians to gather up their v«^ounded and leave 
the house. She had not screamed or uttered a 
word, and the perfect silence must have impressed the 
attacking party with the supposition that there were 
armed men within. Before leaving the place, however, 
they burned the barn and outbuildings. 

"Granny" Hays lived near Donelson's station, east of 
^"ashville. She was an elderly woman, and was one 
female who never appeared frightened when the sav- 



"Granny" Hays. 129 

ages were around. She was devoid of fear. She lived in 
a small cabin alone, but sometimes had as a sort of 
charity-guest a lame, half-witted young fellow named 
Tim Dunbar. One day he was out in the garden, when 
some Indians fired at him. He ran into the house, ex- 
claiming that he was killed, leaving the gate and door 
open. "You fool I you are not hurt,'' cried Granny 
Hays. "Get up and take your gun and follow me. Be 
quick, before they have time to reload their guns." 

Making the frightened dclt follow, she went out to 
the gate and literally "shelled the bushes," where the 
Indians had been seen; then re-entering the cabin and 
barring the door, they reloaded and awaited a near 
approach of the savages. The latter kept out of range, 
firing occasionally at the house. 

Some one saw the fire of Danelson's station, which 
was destroyed on this invasion of the Indians, and had 
men from Caffrey's fort, near the mouth of Stone's 
river, to hasten to the relief of the old lady. It re- 
quired considerable pursuasion to get her to go to a 
more secure place. 
9 



CHAPTEE XII. 

THE PASTIMES OF THE SETTLERS^ AND THEIR WHOLE- 
SOULED HOSPITALITY. 

Des}3ite the dangers surrounding them, and the in- 
numerable hardships embarrassing everywhere, the set- 
tlers managed to get not a httle enjoyment out of ex- 
istence. There were clouds in their skies, but there 
were also sunbeams to break through. They culti- 
vated a spirit of extracting pleasure from the turmoil, 
in obedience to a demand of nature for some relaxation. 
And after all, does not enjoyment lie much in the will? 
If there are those who, though having ears and eyes, 
refuse to hear and see, to paraphrase Scripture, cannot 
the reverse be true also? 

** By looking, we may see the rose ; and, listening, hear a 
song." 

The chase and hunt have afforded pleasure since the 
days of Kimrod, the majority of men not being act- 
uated by the thoughts of the versatile Louise Imogen 
Guiney to the effect that "our father Adam is said to 
have dwelt in peace with all the beasts in his garden. 
And there is no evidence in the Mosaic annals that it 
w^as they who became perverted, and broke faith with 
(130) 



OivD-TiMK Cooking. 131 

man. Marry, man himself, in the birth of his moral 
ugliness, set up the hateful division, estranged these 
estimable friends, and then, unto everlasting, pursues, 
maligns, subjugates, and kills the beings braver, 
shrewder and more innocent than he." The hunt and 
chase were open to the settlers. Where we grow enthu- 
siastic in hunting small game, they could enjoy the 
bringing in of deer, bear and buffalo, not to mention 
the wolves and panthers that were as plentiful as squir- 
rels. If there was a log-rolling or house-raising or 
wedding, one could step out and in a few hours return 
with a deer or half-dozen turkeys for the occasion. 
Flocks of a hundred turkeys would sometimes be seen 
within a few yards of the cabins. Our foremothers, 
according to an early and reliable chronicler, could not 
be excelled in preparing this wild game. "There were 
no cooks to be named in the same day with them when 
the cooking of buffalo tongue, bear meat and venison 
is mentioned,^' he enthusiastically exclaims. "And the 
good housewife in those days rightfully gloried in the 
baking of the hoe-cake, ash-cake, and Johnny cake. 
Then, after frost, when opossums and persimmons were 
ripe, and any one mentioned good eating, the universal 
exclamation w^as, ^Oh ho; don't talk!' " 

There was relief from low spirits in making and bait- 
ing wolf-traps, and in building turkey-pens when the 
game had grown wary, although some of those thus 
engaged were not infrequently shot and killed by lurk- 
ing Indians. Bears and wolves for years after the first 



132 The Backward Trail. 

settlement of Middle Tennessee were found in great 
numbers, especially in the Harpetli hills, ten or twelve 
miles from Nashville. The bear hunt was laborious and 
dangerous, but hunters and their dogs were very par- 
tial to it. 

There were parties in which the young people, with- 
out reference to previous standing in the social cir- 
cles they had gone in in Virginia, the Carolinas and the 
older colonies, found much recreation and real enjoy- 
ment. What mattered the seamy floors and bear-oil 
lights, the uncouth costumes and the scant furniture? 
There were fiddling and dancing and refreshments at 
these functions, and good will and jollity prevailed. 
"Never were the story, the joke, the song and the 
laugh better enjoyed than upon the hewed blocks, or 
puncheon stools around the roaring log fire of the early 
Western settler,'" observes Kendall. "The lyre of 
Apollo was not hailed with more delight in primitive 
Greece, than the advent of the first fiddler among the 
dwellers of the wilderness; and the polished daughters 
of the East never enjoyed themselves half so well, mov- 
ing to the music of a full band, upon the elastic floor 
of their ornamented ball-room, as did the daughters of 
the emigrants, keeping lime to a self-taught fiddler on 
the bare earth or the puncheon floor of the primitive 
log cabin." 

Shooting-matches, throwing the tomahawk, jump- 
ing, boxing and wrestling, as well as foot and horse 
racing, were also indulged in. 



Thk Social Visit. 133 

Perhaps the social visit yielded as much pleasure as 
any other pastime, for men are pre-eminently social by 
nature, and in the wilderness the people were mucli 
like those at Grigsby's Station — celebrated by James 
Whitcomb Riley — where every neighbor was dear as a 
relation, and the latchstring was always hanging from 
the door! 

These visits were doubtless more enjoyable in the 
evenings, after the day's work was over. Some large 
family — parents and a train of children of all ages — 
might be seen to fasten the door and walk down a 
lonely lane in the direction of a small cabin, whose 
window, with open shutter and greased paper screen, 
glowed a blossom of the dark. On the way they might 
have heard the snarl of a wild animal among the 
gloomy woods, while nearer an owl would slowly flap 
by, snapping its beak as it passed over their heads. As 
they neared their destination, the bay of the house dog 
rang out, or, what was more probable, the yelp of 
hounds would sound in a confused chorus, while the 
head of the house came out and yelled to the canines 
to be gone. 

Arriving, a semi-circle would be drawn about the 
spacious fire-place, more fuel would be thrown upon 
the already roaring fire, and a bit more bear's oil added 
to the rudely improvised lamp. The ruddy blaze would 
drive the lurking shadows out of the room, or make 
ludicrous silhouettes on the plain log walls, or light 
up the old flint-lock rifle resting in a rack above the 



134 ^HE Backward ^rail. 

door. Maybe the hunk of venison or bear meat in the 
pot hanging in the chimney was getting near enough 
done for the morrow's meal to he taken from the fire 
by the garrulous housewife and put on a shelf, while 
the husband, with growing enthusiasm, explained how 
the game was taken. The news was touched upon. 
What was the latest from Washington's army? So 
Cornwallis had been caught napping, had he? Had 
Sevier's last raid into the Indian country proved enough 
to cow the murderous savages? How was the Cum- 
berland settlement progressing? The victory of King's 
Mountain was due to the courage of Xollichucky Jack 
and Shelby, was it not? Had no tidings been brought 
in recently by the scouts relative to Watts' or Hang- 
ing Maw's intentions? The AVatauga people had proved 
too much for Old Abraham's and Dragging Canoe's 
warriors, had they not? 

After awhile the gossip of the settlement would be 
retailed; or at the request of the children, now draw- 
ing nearer their elders, stories of adventures would be 
told, of hairbreadth escapes, of individual instances of 
valor where Indian or bear or panther was pitted against 
a white man; or what was not infrequent, a thrilling 
tale of spooks was narrated, wliereat the small list- 
eners would cast furtive glances behind them and 
edge in between the fire and the old folks. 

The coming of emigrants, or their passing through 
the settlements to some remoter post, was an event 
of importance and even pleasure; for they brought 



Border Hospitality. 135 

news from the distant and older spots of civilization, 
and added strength to the new. On this point Ramsey 
says: ''The new-comer, on his arrival in the settle- 
ments was everywhere and at all times greeted with 
cordial welcome. Was he without a family? He was 
at once taken in as a cropper or a farming hand, and 
found a home in the kind family of some settler. Had 
he a wife and children? They were all asked^ in back- 
woods phrase, 'to camp with lis till the neighbors can 
put up a cabin for you.' The invitation accepted, the 
family where he stops is duplicated, but this incon- 
venience is of short duration. The host goes around 
the neighborhood, mentions the arrival of the strangers, 
appoints a day, close at hand, for the neighbors to 
meet and provide them a home. After the cabin is 
raised and the new-comers are in it, every family, near 
at hand, bring in something to give them a start. A 
pair of pigs, a cow and a calf, a pair of all the domicstic 
fowls — any supplies of the necessaries of life which 
they have — all are brought and presented to the be- 
ginners. If they have come into the settlement in 
the spring, the neighbors make another frolic, and 
clear and fence a field for them." 

Iso: not entirely without their honest pleasures — in- 
cluding the feeling of joy rising in the reflection that 
it is more blessed to give than receive — were the fore- 
parents. There was a time to smile as well as to weep; 
recollections of triumph as well as memories of defeat; 
instances of Heaven's blessings to bid hope live during 
the years of disaster and the long-suffering. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

EARLY RELIGIOUS SEXTIMEXT, AND THE FAITHFUL 
WORK OF THE MINISTERS. 

Bishop Asljury, who was greatly interested in the 
spiritual welfare of the pioneers, wrote in his diary in 
1791: "When I reflect that not one in a hundred came 
here to get religion, but rather to get plenty of good 
land, I think it will he well if some or many do not 
lose their souls." 

The prevalent evil which the ministers refer to as 
the lust of greed was sufficient to make one think of 
the Scriptural averment that we cannot serve both God 
and mammon. Yet there is little doubt that under 
their affliction the settlers were more prone to yearn, 
in the words of Mrs. Ward, to feel themselves in some 
grasp that sustained, some hold that made life more 
tolerable again. Instinctively, it might be said — even 
if there had not been that deep religious fervor which 
had for some years pervaded the communities from 
which they emigrated — the people as a general thing 
meditated on the Creator and found comfort in His 
promises. Putnam records the fact that the women, 
especially, of the Cumberland country were well edu- 
cated in the doctrines of revealed religion; they brought 
(136) 



The Camp-meeting. 137 

their Bibles with them, and offered the first pra3^ers 
in the wilderness. There were also many pious women 
and men in the eastern settlements. 

But a time came early in their history when all 
lukewarmness, all torpor, would give way to a wave of 
religious zeal scarcely equaled since the days of Pen- 
tecost. The great revival of 1800, which may be con- 
sidered an epoch in the affairs of the Southwest, was 
nearing. 

It is not overstepping the truth of history to say 
that the camp-meeting was one of the greatest factors 
in forwarding the civilization ar^d moral development 
of the West, especially of Tennessee and Kentucky, and 
impressing reverence for institutions having their 
origin in the divine fiat; that have withstood the as- 
saults of the iconoclast, the sneers of the irreverent, 
and the encroachments of the foreign element seeking 
to discard some of the wisest and holiest boons prof- 
fered mankind. To them as well as the ministers who 
faced death and every manner of hardship for the 
pioneers, is due the reverence with which we hold the 
Sabbath with its "silent theater, the houses from which 
the sounds of music are banished, the empty streets, 
the calm stillness of the day" — our Sunday, which the 
laborer will do well to hold against the insidious efforts 
of trade and commerce if he values the rest which God 
knew in the beginning his nature would require! 

One hundred and thirty-eight heads of Tennessee 
families had united in calling Rev. Charles Cumminss 



138 The Backward Trail. 

to come and settle among them as pastor, and he min- 
istered to the people thirty-nine years. He was a Pres- 
byterian, and was the first man who ever preached in 
Tennessee. He often carried his rifle to church with 
him, seeing that it was well-primed as he set it down 
conveniently near the pulpit before announcing his 
text. "His first years in this \vild frontier,'' says 
McDonnold in his history of Cumberland Presbyterian- 
ism in the West, "were tracked with the blood of Indian 
battles. He fought often, and had many narrow es- 
capes." 

The country called Cumberland lay partly in Ten- 
nessee and partly in Kentucky, its southern boundary 
being the dividing ridge between Cumberland and 
Duck rivers in Tennessee, and its northern boundary 
Green river in Kentucky. Another Presbyterian, 
Thomas B. Craighead, was the first pastor who settled 
in this section. He was followed by Eev. Benjamin 
Ogden, of the Methodist Church. One of Craighead's 
sayings, according to McDonnold, was: "I would not 
give this old handkerchief for all the experimental re- 
ligion in the world." 

But the departure of Eev. James McGready, who 
would now bo called an evangelist, and the arrival of 
the Methodists, brought about the camp-meetings and 
finally the great religious revival, wherein experimental 
religion w^as given much weight. 

McDonnold says that it is strange that mere con- 
jectural accounts of the origin of camp-meetings should 



SEASONS OF S0I.EMNITY. 139 

be exclusively published, when we have the most re- 
liable accounts from eye-witnesses. He avers that the 
first camp-meeting in Christendom, that was appointed 
and intended for a cajnp-meeting, was at Gaspar Eiver 
church, in Kentucky. After this, camp-meetings be- 
came the order of the day. 

The early camp-meetings were without tents or other 
shelter except the wagons. Later, people built double 
log cabins, which were still called tents, for their fami- 
lies and visitors. So far as possible people cooked the 
provisions before they left home, and they moved to 
camp expecting to remain during the meeting. All 
who attended were fed freely. Campers would go out 
into the crowd and make a public invitation for all to 
come and eat. The camps were supplied with- straw, 
both on the ground and on the bed scaffolds. One 
tent was used by the ladies, and another by the gen- 
tlemen. A field of grain with water running through 
it was secured, and the horses of the visitors turned 
into it. A vast shelter covered with boards was built 
and seated for a preaching place. This also had straw 
for a floor. In the intervals between public services it 
was the usual custom to go alone, or in small groups 
to secret prayer in an adjacent forest. Gentlemen were 
not allowed to go upon the ladies' grounds. And in 
all the early days, before railroads came along, these 
meetings were not only as orderly as any other kind 
of meetings, but they were generally seasons of un- 
paralleled solemnity and unequaled moral grandeur. 



140 'Thk Backward Trail. 

At these revivals, the attendance was large, the in- 
terest intense. People came for miles to different camp- 
grounds in Tennessee^ and remained for days. ^'A 
peculiar physical manifestation accompanied these re- 
vivals, popularly known as the jerks," observes Phelan. 
"They were involuntary and irresistible. When under 
their influence, the sufferers would dance, or sing, or 
shout. Sometimes they would sway from side to side, 
or throw the head backwards and forwards, or leap, 
or spring. Generally those under the influence would 
at the end fall upon the ground and remain rigid 
for hours, and sometimes whole multitudes would be- 
come dumb and fall prostrate. As the swoon passed 
away, the sufferer would weep piteously, moan, and sob. 
After a while the gloom would lift, a smile of heavenly 
peace would radiate the countenance, and words of joy 
and rapture would break forth, and conversion always 
followed. Even the most skeptical, even the scoffers, 
who visited these meetings for the purpose of showing 
their hardihood would be taken in this way." 

This wave of religion, called the great revival, be- 
ginning in 1797 under James McGready, rescued Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee, and through them the West and 
South, from French infidelity. 

The recollections of John Carr are interesting and 
valuable. He was a pioneer and historian, and lived 
during the times he has described, being one of the 
settlers on the Cumberland when the attack was in 
1792 made on Buchanan's Station bv John Watts and 



Religious Prejudices. 141 

others. The ministers wore no beards in those days, 
according to Carr. "I have Httle doubt, '' he says, 
"had they risen in tlie pulpit in tliat manner (with 
beards), most of the congregation would have left the 
house." There was much prejudice against jewelry. 
The people were ignorant of the early Methodist class- 
meetings. An itinerant held services at the cabin of 
Carr's parents, closing with a class-meeting, in wliich 
the people were each questioned relative to spiritual 
matters. The preacher had drawn a bench across the 
door, and was proceeding with his examination, when 
he drew near Thomas Hamilton, who had fought dur- 
ing the revolutionary war, and was one of the bravest 
men in the settlement. Hamilton grew nervous, looked 
anxiously toward the back of the house, where his hat 
was, and then in the direction of the chimney. He 
finally sprang to his feet, climbed out the chimney, 
mounted his horse and rode to his home five miles 
distant, a thoroughly scared man. 

On another occasion there was to be a ball in the 
settlements. It was well advertised, and the young peo- 
ple looked forward to it with pleasure. Rev. James 
O'Cull was in the neighborhood, heard of the contem- 
plated ball, and managed to arrive at the house where 
it was to take place and at the proper date. He asked 
permission of his host to preach, and turned the ball 
into a revival. 

Among the earlier ministers who came to Tennessee 
besides Bishop Asbury, Craighead, Cummings and 



142 The Backward Traii,. 

Ogden, were Samuel Doak_, Learner Blackman, Bar- 
nabas McHenry, Peter Massie, Hezekiali Balch, Samuel 
Carrick, James Shaw and James Balch. Their labors 
were ceaseless, and the fruits of their exertions corres- 
pondingly good. Gilmore insists that the majority of 
the 'first settlers were ''hardshell" Baptists; but the 
advent of the Presbyterian and Methodist ministers 
soon changed this condition, if it really existed. 

Few more picturesque figures than that of the fron- 
tier preacher show through the haze of the years. Very 
plainly dressed, but having due regard for cleanliness; 
open and frank of countenance, with a strength and 
kindness blended in his face, strange to see in a person 
of his unafl'ected manner — but really not so hard to 
account for when we reflect that while he toiled through 
the jostlings of existence, his thoughts had communion 
daily and hourly with the Creator. As he came and 
went, he had a smile for the children, and no man 
could point through long years of service and self- 
denial to one word of his that purposely left a sting, 
to one act that would lead men to think he was not 
fit to step up from earth into the presence of Deity. 
A little impractical, maybe, in business affairs, and 
pinched sometimes for the necessaries of life; but, as 
has been beautifully said by Dr. Watson, of Weelum 
Maclure, it was all for mercy's sake. For his mind 
was turned toward saving souls, and not on business; 
his labor was given to his Maker, and men did not 



The Frontier Preacher. 143 

then pay as though they reahzed that he was one of 
those of whom the world was not worthy. As he 
passed from station to station, the wilderness seemed 
to become brighter; and as he knelt in the himible 
homes of the poor and prayed in the sincerity of his 
soul, there came back to earth some semblance of Eden 
out where 'the cattle strayed on the hills, where the 
birds twittered in the canes, where the runnel flowed 
murmuringly to the river like a happy child-soul jour- 
neying from the dawn of life to the twilight of eternity, 
and where the few old-fashioned roses in the little yards 
leaned in the breeze that hurried through the vales 
and over the hills to caress them with invisible but 
woman-soft hands. Giving each person a cordial 
handshake, smiling sunlight into the hearts of the 
children, dispensing in his humble way the bread of 
life — "the spiritually indispensable," as Carlyle has it — 
visiting the sick and pointing the faltering soul heaven- 
ward that it might lean on the Everlasting arms, he 
appears one of the noblest works of God. 



CHAPTEE XIV. 

THE TKIBES CLAIMING A EIGHT TO LANDS AT THE FIRST 
SETTLEMENT^ AND THEIR PRESENT STATUS. 

Like truth, reason, when crushed to earth, will rise 
again; and if selfishness or ire has been too strong for 
our nobler instincts, reason will reproach us with the 
fact Avhen calmness returns. Since the last tribe of 
Indians gave up all interest in Tennessee soil and 
sought other hunting grounds, we have had time to 
reflect. The present generation's prejudices are not 
awakened by the personal recollection of Indian butch- 
eries, and the coolness required for the dealing out of 
justice exists. Was the treatment which the savages 
received always Avhat it should have been? Cannot in- 
stances of dishonest dealings and inhumanity on the part 
of the whites be pointed out? The earlier pioneers 
of America in some cases sowed the wind in broken 
promises and injustices; and the generation of pioneers 
coming after them reaped the whirlwind of savage hate 
and resentment. "And the barbarous people showed us 
no little kindness, for they kindled a fire, and received 
us every one, because of the present rain, and because 
of the cold/' writes Paul of his experiences on the island 
(144) 



Origin op the Indians. 145 

of Melita. Those who came from Europe to the Xew 
World were generally met as kindly by the Indians; and 
yet the latter learned that selfishness and duplicity 
were common to the advance guard of American civil- 
ization. 

To the lover of liberty thoughts of the partition of 
Poland arouse the resentment ls of a personal wrong; 
but sadder thail this is the driving of a people, however 
necessary for progress, from their country. Though 
the Indians have had no historian to present their side 
of the controversy or herald their best deeds, the world 
will admit that their more than half of a century's 
war against the whites was sublime in its desperation 
and determined courage. The most enthusiastic ad- 
herent of the great mission of the Anglo-Saxon people 
must see something pathetic in the efforts of the In- 
dians, who saw treaties disregarded, and continuous 
encroachments made on domains claimed by them; who 
yet were not deterred from going to war for their rights 
though they knew that defeat and probably extinction 
would be the result. 

The origin of the American Indians has been a mat- 
ter for debate for centuries. While their language fails 
to connect them with any Asiatic families, their modes 
of life and implements are thought to connect them 
with the earlier races of the Eastern continent whose 
relics are found in mounds and shell heaps. And this 
is about all that has been proven after centuries of 
investigation and theorizing. 
10 



146 The Backward Trail. 

At the period of the first exploration of Tennessee, 
vague and indefinite claims tc certain portions of the 
country were made by a number of Indian tribes, but 
none of it was held by permanent occupancy, "except/' 
as Eamsey explains, '"that section embraced by the seg- 
ment of a circle, of which the Tennessee river is the 
periphery, from the point where it intersects the North 
Carolina line to that where this stream enters the State 
of Alabama." The Cherokees were settled there. The 
Shawnees, Chickasaws, Choctaws and Cherokees claimed 
other portions, their lines being merely ideal ones. 

The Shawnees, according to the early French ex- 
plorers, were said to assert a right to the lower Cum- 
berland; but they were even then a wandering people. 
The Indians informed Gen. James Robertson on one 
occasion that about 1665 the Shawnees occupied the 
country from the Tennessee river to where Nashville 
stands, and north of the Cumberland, but tha.t about 
1700 they emigrated north and were received as a 
wandering tribe by the Six Nations. Another account 
was given by a Cherokee chief. Little Corn Planter, in 
1772. He said that the Shawnees removed a hundred 
years before from the Savannah river to the Cumber- 
land by permission of his people, but about 1700 the 
Cherokees, assisted by the Chickasaws, drove them from 
the Cumberland valley. About 1714, when M. Charle- 
ville opened a store on the site of Nashville, he is said 
to have occupied their old fort. The fact that there 
were no Indians around Nashville when the fii^st settlers 



Indian Claims. 147 

came is accounted for on the theory that the tribes 
had been trying to destroy each other and, becoming 
afraid to meet, abandoned the country. Evidences were 
very numerous that a dense population had once oc- 
cupied the section said to have been the home of the 
Shawnees. When the first settlers arrived on the Cum- 
berland, they found by every lasting spring collections 
of graves, "made in a particular wa}/' explains Hay- 
wood, "with tlie heads inclined on the sides and feet 
stones, the whole covered with a stratum of mold and 
dirt about eight or ten inches deep." In addition to 
these was the appearance of walls inclosing ancient 
habitations. A part of the bandits infesting the nar- 
rows of the I'ennessee, making war on emigrants and 
navigators, were Shawnees. 

The Chiekasaws laid claim to all the territory in Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee lying between the Tennessee and 
Mississippi rivers, and a portion north of the former, 
though they had no settlements in those sections. In 
1735 their warriors were estimated at hardly five hun- 
dred; but they were war-like, and generally friendly to 
the whites. Piomingo, a chief, v/as a staunch and 
trusted friend of the early settlers. The Choctaws and 
Chickasaws are believed to have had a common origin, 
as their appearance, laws and traditions are similar. 

The Cherokees were perhaps the most powerful In- 
dian nation in the South. It is said that at one time 
they had sixty-four populous towns, and their warriors 
were estimated at above six thousand. Thev were con- 



148 The Backward Trail. 

tinually at war, however — the over-hill towns with the 
northern towns, and the lower ones with the Creeks — 
and became considerably diminished before the settle- 
ments were begun on Watanga. Later, the frontiers of 
Georgia, Virginia, and ISorth and South Carolina were 
greatly distressed by them. Their native land lay upon 
the Catawba, the Yadkin, Keowee, Tugaloo, Flint, 
Coosa, Etowah, on the east and south, and on a number 
of the tributaries of the' Tennessee on the west and 
north. They were a mountain people, and loved their 
country as the traditional William Tell loved his. War 
was a passion with them; but, when they took to the 
arts of peace, they made the most rapid strides in 
civilization. They claimed that they dispossessed a 
moon-eyed people, unable to see by day. 

The ^Iiiskogee or Creek Indians were inveterate 
enemies of the first settlers of the State, though they 
had no settlements within its boundaries, and were 
therefore actuated mainly by a desire to plunder or by 
hatred of the white race. 

There were quite a number of savage chiefs who were 
justly celebrated for gifts that would have elevated 
them to high places if they had been identified with 
civilized communities. Foresight, diplomacy, oratory, 
miilitary genius, all these had brilliant representation 
even as late as the eighteenth century. 

Oconostota was an orator as well as a warrior, and 
war head king of the Cherokees. Nothing is known of 
his birth, but he had attained the age of manhood in 



A Cherokee King. 149 

lioO^ and was living as late as 1809^ being referred 
to in a letter of that date from Return J. Meigs, Indian 
agent, as ''greasy old Oconostcta" who would intrude 
on his studies and wail for hours over his departed 
greatness. He was, in his prime, of herculean frame, 
undaunted courage, and great physical prowess. He 
was one of the six delegates who, in 1730, visited George 
II. in England, being eight years later elected head 
king of the Cherokees. He exerted despotic sway not 
orly over his own people but over the Creeks. 

He opposed the treaty of 1775, wiiereby much of the 
territory of the Indians was ceded, and made an elo- 
quent speech. Over-ruled, he signed the treaty, but 
said to Daniel Boone: "Young man, we have sold you 
a fine territory, but I fear you will have some difficulty 
in getting it settled.^' For years he made war on the 
whites, carrying out this implied threat. 

Finally, his nation dethroned him, and he became 
an inebriate. For nearly thirty years he is known to 
have wandered about a homeless, weak, besotted and 
despised man, begging provisions and drink, though 
claiming Chota, the Cherokee city of refuge, as his home. 

The vice king, Atta-Kulla-Kulla, or the Little Car- 
penter, was for a long time after the erection of Fort 
Loudoun a friend of the English. He possessed many 
fine traits. At the time of .the butchery of the chiefs 
left as hostages in Fort Prince George, as narrated in 
another chapter, a number of whites were still in the 
Indian towns, and would have been immediately slain 



I50 'I^HE Backward Trail. 

if not tortured to death, had he not concealed them 
until there was an opportunity to escape. He then 
urged relentless war on the settlements. After the 
massacre at the Katy Harlin Eeserve, he sa.ved the life 
of an old friend, Capt. Stuart, who was held by Ocono- 
stota for the purpose of managing the cannon taken 
at Fort Loudoun and training them on tlie defenses of 
the whites. When the Cherokees were beaten, he was 
instrumental in bringing about the peace treaty. He 
lived to a ripe age. 

Piomingo, or Mountain Leader, was a leading Chicka- 
saw chief. He was during his last years one of the 
few faithful friends the whites had amons; the Indians. 

John Watts, a Cherokee, was prominent in the various 
onslaughts on the settlements. He was one of the most 
treacherous of his race. While enjoying a wide in- 
fluence among his people, succeeding in raising large 
numbers for plunder and revenge, his success for some 
reason was limited. In none of his actions did anything 
occur to draw to him the idea of "noble" as Cooper 
applied it to the red man. 

Perhaps Alexander McGillivray, a Creek, w^as the 
greatest of the Southern Indians of the last half of 
the eighteenth century. He was a half-breed, educated 
at Charleston, South Carolina. During the struggles 
of the Eastern and Western settlers of Tennessee, he 
was generally their enemy, and a friend of Spain. He 
had considerable influence among all the tribes, and 
from 1784 to his death in 1793, one of his hopes was 



Migration Begun. 151 

to destroy the Cumberland community. He was win- 
ning in his manner, but deceitful in his friendships; 
wealthy, but clung to the squalid life of his people. 
Lacking the idea of moral rectitude, he was yet now 
and then known to display surprising generosity, as in 
the ransoming of white prisoners and restoring them 
to their friends. He died at Pensacola in 1793. 

As pathetic as their contest with the Avhites was the 
Indians' final submission to the inevitable — to become 
exiles from the scenes they had learned to love and 
the graves which held the bones of their dead. Soon 
after the fall of Etowah and Mckojack, no doubt there 
began to be cherished a very strong desire to emigrate 
to other wilds; and as early as 1790 a few hunters left 
and went beyond the Mississippi river. In their desire 
to migrate, they were encouraged by the government 
which had men like James Robertson, Silas Dinsmore 
and Return J. Meigs at the various agencies to give 
flattering suggestions as to the region beyond the Mis- 
sissippi and to offer to buy the lands claimed by the 
Indians in Tennessee and on its borders. The extin- 
guishment of their titles appeared to be one of the 
principle policies of those in power. Threats, flattery, 
bribery, finesse, and arguments were brought to bear, 
until at last contracts were concluded, the Indians sell- 
ing for a mere song. From the tone of ^^the great argu- 
ment" — signed July 19, 1798, by James Robertson, 
James Stuart and Lachlin Mcintosh, and addressed to 
the commissioners of the United States for holding a 



152 The: Backward Traii,. 

treaty with the Cherokees — it is reasonable to infer 
that if the latter had not yielded, force might ultim- 
ately have been emj^loyed. 

Oconostota's prophecy in 1775 that the invader would 
force t]ie Indian steadily before him across the Missis- 
sippi ever towards the West, to find a shelter and a 
refuge in the seclusion of solitude, was being fulfilled. 
Those tribes which relinquished their titles to lands 
and migrated in the first part of the nineteenth century 
beyond the father of waters, are still being pushed west- 
ward. Among the score or so of reservations in the 
Indian Territory are those of the Shawnees, the Choc- 
taws, the Chickasaws and the Cherokees. The first 
is in the northeast corner, east of the Neosho; the 
second in the southeast, bordering Arkansas and Texas; 
the third joins the Choctaws on the west and is sepa- 
rated from Texas by the Red river; while the fourth 
lies in the northeast, bordering Kansas and Arkansas. 
The three last tribes have made consideral)le strides 
in agriculture and the mechanics. Taking sides with 
the Southern Confederacy during the war between 
the States, they were much weakened, however. Their 
slaves were freed, and their rights declared forfeited 
by the United States government. There are many 
Christians among these Indians, and the missionaries 
have given them in their language the whole Bible, 
with spellers, definers, tracts and hymn books. 

As the years go by, will the Indians retain, like the 
Jews, their identity as a people? This is not impossible; 



Destiny of thk Indians. 153 

but one of their race, Simon Pokagon, chief of the 
Pottawattamies, made these observations in a paper in 
The Forum in 1898: "The index-finger of the past 
ajid present is pointing to the future, showing most 
conclusively that by the middle of the twentieth cen- 
tury all Indian reservations and tribe relations will 
have passed away. Then our people will begin to scat- 
ter; and the result will be a general mixing up of the 
races. Through intermarriage the blood of our people, 
like the waters that flow into the great ocean, will be 
forever lost in the dominant race; and generations yet 
unborn will read in history of the red men of the 
forest, and inquire, 'Where are they?^'^ 

It is said that a. number of the tribes occupying the 
Indian Territory in 1899 have long contemplated going 
to Mexico, where they hope for immunity from the 
whites who are still intruding upon them, and proving 
the truth of the remark of a statesman that the white 
race has never shown that charity for the weaker which 
we should expect from its creeds. 



CHAPTEPt XV. 

THE MOUND BUILDERS OR STONE GRAVE RACE, AND 
SOME ARCH.T.OLOGICAL RESEARCHES. 

ThroiTgliout Tennessee are to be found stone graves, 
moimds and ruins of forts which tell of a race of people 
more civilized than the tribes with which the settlers 
came in contact in the eighteenth century. They are 
scattered in the valleys of P^ast Tennessee -and the lower 
valley of the Cumberland^ but the most populous cen- 
ters seem to have been in the vicinity of Xashville. 
The race leaving those ruins is called the Mound Build- 
ers or Stone Grave race. Thruston, in his excellent 
work on the antiquities of Tennessee, observes that 
it is difficult to ascertain the exact relation of the race 
and its near kindred of the neighboring States to 
the historic red Indian, but in the scale of civilization 
it should probably be classed with the best types of 
the sedentary or village Indians of ^ew Mexico or 
Arizona. 'Tf we could have been given a glimpse of 
the fair valley of the Cumberland in 1492, the date 
of the Columbian discovery/' says he, "it is quite prob- 
able that we should have found some of these ancient 
settlements full of busy life. We might have learned 
the story of the mounds and graves from some of their 

(154) 



Conflicting Theories. 155 

own Luiiders; but nearly three centuries elapsed before 
the pioneers of civilization reached the confines of Ten- 
nessee/" 

At the period of eai-ly European settlement upon the 
Atlantic coast, and for more than a century later, the 
French discoverers show that the Indian occupants 
of the interior section of America were involved in 
constant warfare with each other, as recorded. Were 
the Mound Builders on the Cumberland and in various 
parts of Tennessee overwhelmed and driven off by more 
savage conquerors, or did they become members of the 
Shawnee or the Xatchez tribe? It is held by Prof. 
Cyrus Thomas that recent investigafions prove they 
were the ancestors of the Shawnees. The latter were 
finally overwhelmed and scattered. Dr. D. G. Brinton, 
on the other hand, maintains that the ancestors of the 
Chatta-Muskogee tribes were probably the original 
mound building stock or family — these tribes embracing 
the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Natchez and other allied 
Southern Indians; for within the historic period, even, 
they were builders of earthworks and mound defenses. 
On this latter point Thruston, rightly regarded as an 
authority, sa3^s: "The widely-spread traditions of the 
Northern Indians, indicating that the race that built 
the imposing strnctures in the Ohio valley were driven 
to the southward, also favored this view; as does the 
fact that the mounds of Tennessee do not appear to 
be of so early a period as the Ohio mounds." But in 
the historic period the unknown land of Tennessee was 



156 The Backward Trail. 

marked on the new world maps as ''the unexplored land 
of the ancient Shawnees.'^ 

There is no foundation^ however, for the helief that 
the graves in some portions of the State indicate a race 
of pigmies. There are really no pigmy graves here. 

One of the largest of the aboriginal cemeteries in 
the State lies about five miles south of Nashville on 
Brown's creek, between the Franklin and Middle 
Franklin turnpikes. Near this site there seems to have 
once been a large town. Not less than three thousand 
closely laid stone graves were found in the cemetery^ 
and about a thousand more were found on nearby farms. 
In the central cemetery six or seven hundred perfect 
specimens of well-burned pottery were discovered; and 
nearly every familiar natural object is represented in 
the form of the ware — animals, birds, fish, the human 
figure and. sea-shell forms. Many of the vessels have 
been colored and decorated with some artistic skill. 
In a child's grave of the ancient cemetery was a terra- 
cotta figure nine inches long, representing a papoose 
tied to its hanging board, which indicates that this 
modern Indian custom prevailed with the prehistoric 
tribes. Sets of toy plates, marbles, terra-cotta rattles, 
and crude tools and implements of pottery, stone and 
bone, were also unearthed. 

It appears that in the immediate vicinity of Nashville 
no defensive works of any magnitude were erected; but 
a cordon of frontier forts, or fortified towns, protected 
this central and populous district. 



Stonk Graves. 157 

The cists or box-shaped coffins are made of thin slabs 
of stone^ sometimes broken or cut, and frequently rude- 
ly joined. The graves are six or seven feet long, a foot 
and a half or two feet wide, and eighteen inches deep; 
but graves of varying sizes are found. Frequently the 
cist contains two or three skeletons, and is not more 
than three or four feet long, indicating that they were 
probably interred long after death. Nearly all the 
graves are filled with earth inside, by infiltration. The 
roots of trees have penetrated them; the skulls are 
usually packed with earth. Vessels of pottery must 
have contained food and drink for the journey to the 
happy hunting ground, and are conveniently near the 
body. Graves exist on many of the large farms in 
central Tennessee within a radius of seventy-five miles 
of Nashville. In Wilson County, near Cottage Home — 
about fifty miles east of the capital — there are a large 
mound and cemetery. They are on the farm of the 
late Peter Clarke, situated about two hundred yards 
from the western bank of Smith Fork creek, and occupy- 
ing three or four acres of ground. Mr. Leander Hays, 
a reliable gentleman who has lived on an adjoining 
farm since about 1835, said in 1899: "The mound fifty 
years ago was twenty-five feet above the level of the 
surrounding land, and nearby was a large basin, show- 
ing that the material was taken from that spot for the 
erection of the mound. There was a white oak tree on 
the mound's top, with rings indicating that it was three 
hundred vears old. Some treasure-hunters made an 



158 The Backward Traii.. 

excavation, digging a tunnel six feet in size. Portions of 
a skeleton, some pottery, and, if I recollect, a gunstock, 
were the only things discovered. There are traces of 
fortifications nearby, some portions being about four 
feet high fifty years ago. Within the space enclosed 
by this earth-work were a number of smaller mounds. 
A large number of graves in the fields bordering the 
creek were rock-lined, square, and contained skeletons 
in a sitting posture. Flint arrow-heads were numerous. 
At our old homestead, which I own now, there are 
two of these graves which have not been molested after 
discovered; one near the front gate, and the other in 
the garden, under an old apple tree." 

Four miles east, on the same creek, in the bottom 
fields of the T. G. Bratton farm, Indian graves were 
once numerous, but have been destroyed by the plow- 
share. The bones were of a reddish tint, and crumbled 
when exposed to the air. They were in the vicinity of 
the trail referred to by Carr in his mention of the fight 
which took place between Winchester and the bodj 
of Indians under the leadership of the chief, the Moon. 

A mile north of Liberty, on the farm of C. W. L. 
Hale, Delvalb County, there stands a large mound, 
evidently of artificial construction. The field in which 
it is seen has been under cultivation about seventy-five 
years, but the mound is yet of considerable dimensions, 
about fifteen feet high and a hundred feet in diameter. 
It was used perhaps as a place for observation by the 
Mound Builders, or for religious rites. Stone graves 



A Prehistoric Giant. 159 

were in close proximity. Across Smith Fork creek, a 
quarter of a mile from the mound, there was found a 
large grave in 189-1: which caused considerable com- 
ment. It was very long, and the person buried there 
must have been of giant size. The jaw bone was said 
to have been large enough to slip with ease down over 
an adult's head. The Anakim were giants of importance 
in the early days in the Orient; David had a troop of 
giants; the emperor of Germany has shown partiality 
for a guard of men of large stature. No doubt the 
giant whose bones were unearthed in DeKalb County 
in 1894, where they had reposed for centuries, was a 
person of importance, stalking among his people con- 
scious of their admiration, and when in battle witness- 
ing with satisfaction the consternation his Goliath-like 
figure excited among his enemies. 

Were the Cumberland settlements of the Mound 
Builders intended to be protected by the cordon of forts 
mentioned earlier in this chapter? There are ruins of 
fortifications in Sumner, Williamson and Wilson coun- 
ties to indicate this. "Forts were probably not needed 
on the western and northwestern sides, already occupied 
by villages and settlements of the same race," sug- 
gests Thruston. 

The works lying near Saundersville, Sumner County, 
inclose about fourteen acres. The earth lines and 
smaller mounds in the cultivated fields in 1897 were 
nearly obliterated, but in the woodland were well pre- 
served. The chief mound near the center is nearly 



i6o The Backward Trail. 

twenty-six feet high. It is about three hundred and 
eighteen feet in circumference^ and is entirely artificial. 
The mounds next in size are composed probably of the 
debris of ancient houses. At irregular intervals along 
the earth lines in the woodland, angles of earth project 
about ten feet beyond the general line, indicating 
towers or bastions in the wall line. 

There are also aboriginal works of interest at Cas- 
talian Springs, in the same county. 

A fortified settlement is found on the Lindsley farm, 
east of Lebanon, containing about ten acres. The usual 
great mound is near the center. A large number of the 
smaller elevations proved to be the remains of dwell- 
ing houses or wigwams; when the earth was cleared 
away, hard, circular floors were disclosed, with burnt 
clay or ancient hearths in the center, indicating a sim- 
ilarity to the circular lodges of modern Indians. From 
beneath the floors — many of the Indians buried their 
dead under their dwellings — were taken some of the 
finest specimens of pottery ard ancient art yet discov- 
ered in mounds. 

On the southwest bank of the Big Harpeth river, in 
AVilliamson County, on the De Graffenreid farm, about 
two and a half miles from Franklin, and twenty miles 
south of Nashville, vestiges of the ditch and embank- 
ment of a fortified settlement are visible, though the 
land has been tilled for nearly a century. The en- 
closure contains about thirty-two acres of land. The 
earthwork is a crescent or semi-circle, 3,800 feet in 



"^ Ancient Earthworks. i6i 

length, and the ends resting on an impassable, almost 
perpendicular bluff of the river, rising about forty feet 
from the water's edge. The land is unusually fertile 
witliin the enclosure, and the water is convenient and 
inexhaustible. The place would have maintained a pro- 
tracted siege. There are nine mounds within the earth- 
works; the largest is two hundred and thirty feet in 
length, one hundred and ten feet in breadth, and six- 
teen feet in height. The mounds and ditch were covered 
with trees. A white oak four feet in diameter stood 
in the ditch. In one of the mounds Avas a skeleton in 
a sitting posture. Within the bones of the hand was 
held a flint knife or sword blade, the fingers resting 
around the tapering end or handle. The instrument 
was twenty-two inches long, and two inches wide at the 
broadest portion. It is said to be the longest and finest 
chipped stone knife known to archaeology. An earthen- 
ware vessel was on the left side, as if held in the hand, 
and two large sea-shells lay on the right. In other 
graves there were some small, thin copper plates, 
stamped with rude crosses; also, unique images and fine 
specimens of painted pottery and of shell work. 

There are also mounds and groups of mounds in 
Maury County, in the Sequatchee valley, on Caney 
Fork, and in Madison and Lawrence counties. On the 
east side of the Tennessee river, on the high ground 
adjoining tl]e town of Savannah, there are extensive 
earthworks./ But the largest and most elaborate an- 
cient fortification in Middle Tennessee is situated in the 
II 



i62 Thk Backward Traii.. 

forks of Duck river, near Manchester in Coffee County. 
In 1897 the main wall varied from four to six feet in 
height. It is partly constructed of irregular, loose stone 
from the river bed or the adjoining hlulfs. There is 
no regular wall or masonry, but the rocks and earth 
are heaped together promiscuousl}^, forming a strong 
embankment, connecting with the steep river bluffs. 
A wide, deep ditch in the rear of the works separates 
and protects them from the commanding ridge op- 
posite. The entrance at the north end exhibits con- 
siderable engineering skill, and is similar in plan to 
some of the fortified gateways of the strongest ancient 
works in Ohio. Mounds of stone about three feet higher 
than the general wall — doubtless foundations for lov/er 
or extra defenses — were erected on each side of the 
entrance. On the inside, double protecting walls extend 
back from the opening, terminating at both ends in 
raised mounds of the same character, opposite the main 
entrance and rear opening, the latter being concealed at 
the side. ''The enemy once within the main gateway, 
w^ould find himself in a ml de sac in this enclosure." 
Explorations made have revealed no stone graves or 
other remains of interest, or connecting it with abo- 
riginal life in other fortified works. The stone fort is 
supposed to have been a military enclosure, not used 
as a permanent settlement. 

"WHien lived the people to whom we give the name 
of Mound Builders for the lack of a more appropriate 



Mere Speculations. 163 

one? From the excellent state of preservation of many 
of the skeletons^ shelly bone and horn ornaments and 
implements^ sun-dried pottery, and articles of wood, 
found in some of the mounds and stone graves of 
Middle Tennessee, Thruston contends that it cannot 
be believed that all of the latter ante-dated the discovery 
of this country by Columbus, the visit of Pamphilo 
De Narvaez in 1728, or of De Soto in 1540. 

But the mystery surrounding the prehistoric race or 
races of Tennessee will in all probability never be sat- 
isfactorily explained. The centuries keep no records, 
and where man has failed to do so, speculation and 
wonder are all that are left. 

"Sages and chiefs long sinc> had birth 
Ere Caesar was, or Newton named; 

Those raised new empires o'er the earth, 
And these new heavens and systems named; 

Vain was the chief's, the sage's pride — 

They had no poet, and they died!" 

sang Pope; and the lack of the poet and historian is 
painfully felt in the especial case of the aboriginal 
races of America. 



CHAPTPJR XYI. 

THE BATTLE OF KING's MOUNTAIN, AND TENNESSEE'S 
CONNECTION WITH THE REVOLUTION. 

The battle of King's Mountain was not fought on 
Tennessee soil, but as Tennesseans were engaged in it, 
it has an additional historic interest to citizens of this 
State. 

The first counties organized in what afterwards be- 
came Tennessee were Washington, organized in Novem- 
ber, 1777, and Sullivan, taken from Washington in 
1779 and named for Gen. Sullivan. John Sevier held 
the position of colonel-commandant of the first, and 
Isaac Shelby that of the second. Sevier has been men- 
tioned. Shelby was another of those daring Indian 
fighters whose courage contributed to the success of the 
early settlements. 

In 1780 the revolutionary cause in the South seemed 
on the point of collapsing. Charleston fell. Gen. Gates 
had been defeated. Gen. Sumter had met with reverses. 
Only a few partisans kept the spirit of the colonists 
alive. Lord Cornwallis by September had been rein- 
forced by about three thousand men from Clinton's 
command at New York, and passed triumphantly into 
North Carolina; Patrick Ferguson, with a command of 
regulars and tories, moving on his left, was threatening 
(164) 



The Patriots Arouskd. 165 

the western frontiers with fire and sword; and many 
patriots submitted to British authority, considering 
their freedom lost. 

But a turning point came at last. The threats of 
Ferguson had aroused the frontiersmen, and gathering 
under Sevier and Shelby, they brought about one of 
the most brilliant victories of the war, at King's Moun- 
tain, N. C, made the American republic a certainty, 
and, as Phelan correctly observes, connected the history 
of Tennessee with Bunker Hill and the ancient history 
of the United States. They resolved to arrest the bril- 
liant British officer's progress, and soon had him on the 
retreat and writing to Lord Comwallis for assistance 
against those he had but a few days before threatened. 

Shelby dispatched a messenger to Col. William Camp- 
bell on the Holston; and the field officers of South- 
western Virginia invited him with four hundred men 
to join in the expedition against Ferguson. An express 
was also sent to Col. Cleaveland, of North Carolina. 
All were to meet and unite, and accordingly on Sep- 
tember 25, 1780, the three regiments under Campbell, 
Sevier and Shelby, and some North Carolina fugitives 
under McDowell, assembled on the Watauga to begin 
their march. 

Five days afterwards they formed a junction with the 
regiment of Col. Cleaveland. Their advance startled 
the enemy. -"A numerous army now appeared on the 
frontier drawn from N'ollichucky and other settlements 
beyond the mountains, whose very names had been 



i66 The) Backward ^RAit. 

unknown to ns/" wrote Lord Rawdon later, and the 
missive tends to show the trepidation the few hundred 
men put the British in. But when the vigor of move- 
ment and tlie personal appearance of those hardy moun- 
taineers are considered, it is hardly a matter for wonder 
that they were magnified into a '"numerous army." We 
can in imagination see the consternation of the Grecians 
when Alaric the Goth appeared on their borders, and 
realize something of the fierce appearance of Attila's 
horde of Huns as they advanced on Italy. The Ameri- 
can riflemen, though insignificant in numbers compared 
with those old-world legions, were as picturesque and 
terrorizing in their appearance; and they were actuated 
by patriotism and not plunder as they issued from the 
mountain fastnesses, and this made them all the more 
formidable. Not a bayonet was amongst them; but few 
swords dangled at their officers' sides; not a tent was 
carried to protect them from the cold autumn nights. 
But their fringed and tasseled hunting shirts were girded 
in by bead-worked belts, and the trappings of their 
horses were stained red and yellow. On their heads 
they wore coon-skin or mink-skin caps, with the tails 
hanging down, or else felt hats in each of which was 
thrust a buck tail or a sprig of green. All carried small- 
bore rifles, tomahawks and scalping knives. Before 
leaving on the march, they had assembled in a grove 
and heard Eev. Samuel Doak invoke the "blessings of 
Hea.ven on the expedition; and the light of a just cause 
shone in their eves and on their rough and scarred and 



Preparing to Attack. 167 

weather-beaten countenances. Then their commanders 
— these were the embodiment of valor and determina- 
tion also. There was Campbell, brave and watchful; 
Shelby, with his iron nerves and the fearless and auda- 
cious look which comes of frequent and victorious en- 
counters with death; Sevier, with his knightly bearing, 
who though only thirty-five years of age, had his two 
gallant sons there to watch over; McDowell and Wil- 
liams, eager and alert; and, lastly, Cleaveland, a Her- 
cules in size and anxious to avenge the wrongs the loy- 
alists had inflicted on him. and his people. What cham- 
pions to keep "the lamp of chivalry alight in hearts of 
gold!" 

After a few days this "numerous army" of less than 
fifteen hundred men reached the Cowpens on Broad 
river. Here they held a council of war and it was 
decided to start that night to strike the British by sur- 
prise; for this enterprise they picked out nine hundred 
and ten of their best horsemen, all expert marksmen; 
and at eight o'clock the same evening the selected men 
began their march. On the afternoon of October 7 they 
were at the foot of King's Mountain, on the top of 
which Ferguson, with eleven hundred and twenty-five 
men — one hundred and twenty-five of them regulars — 
were camped, confident that he could not be beaten. 

The Americans dismounted, and formed themselves 
into four columns. A part of Cleveland's regiment, 
headed by Winston, and Sevier's regiment, formed a 
column on the right. The other part of Cleaveland's 



i68 The Backward Trail. 

regiment, headed by that partisan himself, and the 
regiment of Williams, composed the left wing. The 
post of extreme danger was assigned to the column 
formed by Campbell's regiment on the right center, and 
Shelby's regiment on the left center; so that Sevier's 
right nearly adjoined Shelby's left. The right and left 
wings were to pass the position of Ferguson, and from 
opposite sides climb the ridge, fortified by nature with 
slate-cliffs forming breastworks, in his rear; while the 
two central columns were to attack in front. In this 
order they advanced to within a quarter of a mile of 
the British before discovered. 

The two center columns, headed by Campbell and 
Shelby, climbing the mountain, began the attack. Shel- 
by went on up. The enemy's regulars chaxged Camp- 
bell with fixed bayonets; and his riflemen, having no 
bayonets, gave way for a short distance only, and then 
returned with additional ardor. The two columns with 
some aid from a part of Sevier's regiment, kept up a 
furious battle with Ferguson's force for ten minutes; 
then the right and left wings of the Americans advanced 
upon the British flank and rear; the fire became general; 
for fifty-five minutes longer the volleying was incessant. 
At last the American right wing gained the top of the 
mountain, and the British — Ferguson being killed — at- 
tempted to retreat along the top of the ridge. They 
were held in check by Williams and Cleaveland, and 
Capt. De Peyster hoisted a white flag. The firing ceased 
soon, and the enemv surrendered at discretion. 



Result of the Victory. 169 

The loss of the British was eleven hundred and four 
— ^the number of prisoners was six hundred and forty- 
eighty according to Bancroft. The Americans' loss was 
twenty-eight killed and sixty wounded. 

Gregg, an English historian, says: "Of some six 
hundred and fifty captives, a number were hanged in 
cold blood on the next morning, under the eyes of the 
American commander." 

But the whole truth is, that among the captives were 
house-burners and assassins; and private soldiers who 
had witnessed the sorrows of helpless women and chil- 
dren, executed nine or ten of these creatures — "for the 
frequent use of the gallows at Camden, Ninety-Six, and 
Augusta," as Bancroft explains; but Col. Campbell in- 
tervened and pre:vented further delinquences. 

"The victory at King's Mountain, which in the spirit 
of the American soldiers was like the rising at Con- 
cord, in its effects like the successes at Bennington, 
changed the aspect of the war," observes Bancroft. 
"The victory," declares Eoosevelt, "was of far-reaching 
importance, and ranks among the decisive battles of the 
Revolution. It was the first great success of the Ameri- 
cans in the South, the turning point in the Southern 
campaign, and it brought cheer to the patriots through- 
out the Union." 

A sword and a pair of pistols were voted to Sevier 
and Shelby by the General Assembly of North Carolina, 
which debt of gratitude was not paid till 1810. The 
soldiers received liquidated certificates worth two cents 



170 rHK Backward Traii,. 

on the dollar for their services. Shelby's share of these 
for services in 1780-81 was sold by him for ''six yards 
of middling broadcloth." But they were not fighting 
for lucre. Both Sevier and Shelby, after a war with the 
Indians for the protection of the frontiers, joined 
Marion with Washington and Sullivan county men, in 
behalf of indejpendence. 



CHAPTER XVIL 

THE STORY OF CONSTITUTION MAKING^ FROM THE 
^VATAUGA ASSOCIATION TO 1800. 

The Anglo-Saxon race from an early day has had 
great faith in a fundamental political structure called 
the constitution, and reverence it as the bulwark of 
their liberties. This was made manifest west of the 
xllleghenies in the action of the Wataugans in 1772. 
The line between Virginia and Xorth Carolina was run 
in 1771, and they found their settlements in the latter 
colony, and not in Virginia, as they had supposed, and 
separated from the parent colony by distance and almost 
impassable ranges of mountains. The affairs of Xorth 
Carolina were disordered, and the Western settlers could 
expect no aid or protection from her, and they hoped for 
none from the general government. They found them- 
selves without government, although the community was 
already infested to some extent by lawless characters 
who had come with the wave of immigration. Watauga 
was in an anomalous position, it can be seen. "For 
government," says Bancroft, "its members in 1772 came 
together as brothers in convention, and founded a re- 
public by a written association; appointed their own 
magistrates, Robertson among the first; framed laws for 
their present occasions : and set to the people of America 
(171) 



172 l^HE Backward TRAit. 

the example of erecting themselves into a State, inde- 
pendent of the British king/' Perhaps they hardly in- 
tended such independence as the distinguished historian 
suggests, but Watauga was the first free independent 
community established by men of American birth on 
this continent. 

The constitution of Watauga has perished, and we 
know very little of the contents of the instrument; but 
it is thought that the Cumberland compact, made later 
by persons who were identified with the Watauga move- 
ment and preserved in part, is in many respects a repro- 
duction of it. Thirteen commissioners were elected — 
John Carter, Charles Robertson, Zach Isbell, John 
Sevier, James Smith, James Robertson, Jacob Brown, 
William Bean, John Jones, George Russell, Jacob 
Womack, Robert Lucas and William Tatham. Of these 
John Carter, Charles and James Robertson, Zack Isbell 
and John Sevier were selected as a court, or board of 
five commissioners, and William Tatham made clerk. 
The settlements originally composing the association 
were Watauga and Carter's Valley, but the Nollichucky, 
or Brown settlement, was admitted later. The principle 
of representation appears to have been fairly employed, 
for in the subsequent petition to be annexed to North 
Carolina it was declared that the committee had been 
chosen unanimously by consent of the people, and had 
acted with the consent of every individual. The 
Wataugans were mostly from North Carolina and Vir- 
ginia, and the settlers of those colonies were largely 



The Watauga Compact. 173 

English. Ninety-eight per cent of the white Virginian 
population were English. This assured Anglo-Saxon 
blood and principles in the little commonwealth. The 
fundamental tenets of this association were therefore 
Anglo-Saxon — personal liberty and representative gov- 
ernment, from all that can be gathered; and this should 
satisfy our curiosity relative to the movement which 
has assumed an undue conspicuousness in history. 

Eobertson, Isbell, Lucas and Tatham went a few years 
later and settled on the Cumberland; and so in 1780, 
when the settlements there had grown, and the repre- 
sentatives of seven stations met in Nashborough on May 
1, they must have exerted an influence in the making of 
the constitution framed by this convention. The com- 
pact, excepting the first page, has been preserved, with 
certain amendments made on May 13. Two hundred 
and fifty-six persons signed it; and though the instru- 
ment contains a recognition of the fact that the Cum- 
berland settlement belonged to North Carolina, that 
settlement really became another State founded upon 
the consent of the governed. The reasons given for its 
organization are thought to represent the purposes of the 
AVatauga settlers. Was not the wording borrowed from 
the older compact? Instead of a committee of thirte^, 
however, it provided for a committee of twelve, and 
they are referred to as the judges, triers, or general 
arbitrators. The sub-committee of five do not appear 
to have been retained, either; for the judges or triers 



174 The Backward Traii,. 

are declared to have the j^roper jurisdiction for the re- 
covery of debt or damage, provided the cause of action 
had arisen among the settlers when they were beyond the 
limits of government. Cases involving one hundred 
dollars or less were tried before three judges, whose 
decision was final. If the amount was larger, an ai)peal 
oould be taken to the twelve — or rather to nine — of the 
committee, for the three from whose judgment an ap- 
peal was taken were excluded. The judges had criminal 
jurisdiction, but were forbidden to proceed with execu- 
tion "so far as to effect life or member/' in which case 
the offender was to be sent under guard to the place 
where the offense had been committed, or to a place 
where a legal trial could be had — perhaps in the older 
section of North Carolina. 

The Cumberland institutions were thoroughly Eng- 
lish, like those of AYatauga. In April, 1783, the Leg- 
islature of North Carolina created Davidson county, and 
the compact of the Cumberland settlements became ob- 
solete. 

As shown in a previous chapter, the State of 
Franklin was organized in the Eastern section under 
the leadership of Sevier in 1784, and collapsed four 
years subsequently. When the scheme to form it ma- 
terialized, the Xorth Carolina constitution, with some 
immaterial modifications, was adopted at the suggestion 
of Sevier. That constitution was, according to com- 
petent critics, a democratic, a thoroughly American, 
version of the English constitution. 



Enumeration of Inhabitants. 175 

In this connection it may he instructive to show that 
the Legislature of Frankhn appointed Sevier governor 
and made other necessary officers in the spring of 1785; 
and amusing to note the Solons grapphng with a finan- 
cial system. ^'In addition to the ordinary medium of 
exchange/' says Caldwell in his constitutional history, 
"divers commodities were made legal tender. Tow linen, 
for instance, was legal tender at the rate of one shilling 
nine pence a yard, and linsey at three shillings; clean 
beaver skins, six shillings each; raccoon and fox skins, 
one shilling and three pence; bacon and tallow, six 
pence a pound; rye whiskey, two shillings and six pence 
a gallon; peach and apple brandy, three shillings a gal- 
lon; maple sugar, one shilling a pound. Thus the gov- 
ernor might ha.ve been compelled to take the amount 
of his salary in bees-wax and rye whiskey!" 

The territorial organization, ha.ving been entirely 
artificial, will not be noticed here. 

On July 11, 1795, the Territorial Assembly passed an 
act for the enumeration of the inhabitants of the ter- 
ritory of Tennessee with the view of creating a new 
State. The enumeration indicated the population as 
being 77,262, of whom 10,613 were slaves, and 973 were 
distinguished as "other free persons." More than a 
third of all the voters of the territory opposed a State 
government. 

The constitutional convention was called and assem- 
bled at Knoxville on July 11, 1796. There were then 
elexen counties — Blount, Davidson, Greene, Hawkins, 



176 Thk Backward TRAit. 

Jefferson, Knox, Sullivan, Sevier, Sumner, Tennessee 
and AVashington. The members of the convention num- 
bered fifty-five. It was opened with prayer, and by a 
sermon by Rev. Samuel Carriek. William Blount, ter- 
ritorial governor, was president. The committee ap- 
pointed to draft the constitution was composed of An- 
drew Jackson, John McNairy, Samuel Frazier, William 
Eankin, William Cocke, Thomas Henderson, Joseph 
Anderson, James Roddey, William Blount, Charles Mc- 
Clung, W. C. C. Claiborne, John Ehea, David Shelby, 
Daniel Smith, Samuel Wear, John Clack, Thomas Johns- 
.ton, William Fort, John Tipton and James Stewart. 

Like the Franklin people, Tennessee virtually adopted 
the North Carolina constitution — a constitution at once 
democratic and conservative in method. 

The first place was given to the Legislature, and too 
much power was vested in that department. One 
senator and two representatives were provided from each 
county in the first Assembly, but after the census which 
w^as to be taken within three years of the first meeting 
of Assembly, senators and representatives were to be 
apportioned according to the number of taxable inhab- 
itants, not according to population. Was not here a 
property qualification? And no one could be a member 
who had not for one year possessed and continued to 
possess two hundred acres of land. The body was to 
fix all salaries, though until 1804: these were paid: 

To the governor, $750. 

To the judges, not more than $600. 



A Study in Salaries. 177 

To the secretary, not over $400. 

To the treasurer or treasurers, not more than four 
per cent for receiving and paying out all funds. 

To the attorney or attorneys, not over $50 for each 
court attended. 

Land, excepting town lots, was to be taxed uniformly, 
and lots were not to be assessed higher than two hundred 
acres of land. 

There was a poll-tax on slaves, not to be more than 
the tax on two hundred acres of land. 

The governor Avas elected by the people for a term 
of two years, was to be twenty-five years of age and 
to own five hundred acres of land. His successor in case 
of death, resignation, etc., was the speaker of the 
senate. 

Every free-holder over the age of twenty-one, and 
every male citizen over that age who had been for six 
months a resident of the county where his vote was 
olfered, was an elector of the governor and members of 
the General Assembly. Even free negroes voted, and 
continued to do so until the constitution of 1834. 

The judicial power was invested in such superior and 
inferior courts of law and equity as the Legislature 
might establish. 

The judges and attorneys general were elected by joint 
ballot of the two houses, to hold office during good 
behavior. 

Each court appointed its own clerk, to hold his office 
during good behavior. 
12 



178 Thk Backward Trail. 

Magistrates were appointed by tlie General Assembly, 
and commissioned by the governor. They were also to 
hold during good behavior; their number not to exceed 
two for each captain's company (of militia), except that 
the company which included the county seat was entitled 
to three. 

Coroners, trustees and constables were elected by the 
county court for two years; rangers and registers were 
appointed by that tribunal also, to serve during good 
behavior. 

There were no civil districts until 1834. 

It was not necessary for legislative action to call out 
the militia. 

Clergymen were denied the right to sit in the As- 
sembly. 

No one who denied the being of God or a future 
state of rewards and punishments was allowed to hold 
any office in the civil department of the State, but he 
might in the militaxy. 

Persons could be imprisoned for debt, unless the 
debtors should surrender their estate for the benefit of 
creditors, where the presumption of fraud was not 
strong. 

The press was to be free, and the principles of the 
English and American Bills of Eights were declared to 
be essential parts of the constitution. 

As to religious liberty it was declared: "That all men 
have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Al- 
mighty God according to the dictates of their own con- 



Presidential Electors. 179 

sciences; that no man can of right be compelled to 
attend, erect, or support any place of worship, or to 
maintain any ministry against his consent; that no 
human authority can in any case whatever control or 
interfere with the rights of conscience; and that no 
preference shall ever be given by law to any religious 
establishment or mode of worship. That no religious 
test shall ever be required as a qualification to any 
office or public trust under this State." 

The constitution was said by Thomas Jefferson — one 
of whose great hobbies was religious liberty — to be the 
least imperfect and most republican of the State con- 
stitutions. However, it contained grave defects, which 
have since been remedied to some extent. These 
changes may be noted by a comparison of it with the 
present State constitution. 

In 1796 the State contained three districts — Wash- 
ington, Mero, and Hamilton. On August 8 of that year 
an act was passed naming three persons from each 
county to choose the presidential electors. The com- 
missioners so chosen from the counties of Washington 
district were to meet at Jonesboro, those from Mero at 
Nashville, and those from Hamilton at Knoxville, on a 
day designated, and ballot for electors for their respec- 
tive districts. In case of a tie, the decision was to be 
made by drawing lots. This unique method no longer 
prevails, and the Presidential electors are chosen by the 
people at a regular election. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



First Settlement in Tennessee, at Wataug-a 1768 

Wataug-a Association Formed 1772 

Indians, Throug-h British Agents, Seek to Destroy 

East Tennessee Settlements 1776 

First Settlement in Middle Tennessee 1778 

Jonesboro, the First Town on Tennessee Soil, L<aid 

Off 1779 

First Literary School, Established by Samuel Doak. 1780 

John Sevier Takes Part in Battle of King-'s Mountain 1780 

North Carolina Cedes Her Western Settlements 1784 

Cession Act Repealed 1785 

State of Franklin Formed 1785 

End of the State of Franklin 1788 

Tennessee Ceded by North Carolina , , 1790 

Tennessee Becomes a Territory 1790 

Indians Begin to Migrate 1790 

First Federal Census of the Territory 1790 

First Tennessee Newspaper, Founded at Rog-ersville. 1791 

Knoxville Eaid Off 1792 

John Sevier's Last Military Service 1793 

Nickojack Expedition, from Nashville 1794 

Tennessee Admitted to the Union 1796 

John Sevier Elected Governor for the First Term. . . . 1796 

First General Assembly Meets at Knoxville 1796 

Andrew Jackson Elected to Congress 1796 

William Blount and William Cocke Elected United 

States Senators 1796 

Senator Blount expelled from the United States Sen- 
ate 1797 

(i8i) 



AUTHORITIES QTED. 



Civil and Political, History of the State of Tennessee, from 
Its First Settlement up to the Year 1796. By J[olin Haywood. 1823. 

Early Times in Middle Tennessee. By John Carr. 1857. 

History of Middle Tennessee; or, Life and Times of Gen. James 
Robertson. By A. W. Putnam. 1859. 

Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century. 
By J. G. M. Ramsey. 1860. 

History of Tennessee; the Making of a State. By James Phelan. 
1888. 

History of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. By B. W. 
McDonnold. 1888. 

Constitutional Studies in Tennessee History. By Joshua Cald- 
well. 1895. 

Antiquities of Tennessee and the Adjacent States. By Gates P. 
Thruston. 1897. 

Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. By John Allison. 1897. 

Life of J. D. Goodpasture. By A. V. and W. H. Goodpasture. 1898. 

(183) 



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